OPTIMIZING SHUTIN TIME FOR PUMP-OFF CONTROLLERS

Much work has been done on the operation of beam pump pump-off controllers, but the downtime is normally a simple timer and the optimum downtime is usually set by rule of thumb or trial and error. This paper uses a complete well model coupled with a transient reservoir  model to show that the optimum downtime in terms of total energy used per produced barrel of oil is equal to the wellbore storage time from well test analysis.