Total Well Management is a methodology for maximizing oil production and minimizing operating costs. The need to increase off production, reduce operating costs and increase net income from beam pumped wells, requires an integrated analysis of the pumping system including the performance and interaction of all the elements: the reservoir, the wellbore, the downhole pump, the rod string, the beam pump and the prime mover. Field experience undertaking such analysis in numerous wells has resulted in the development of a procedure which insures that good results are obtained with the minimum of effort. It is the objective of this paper to outline this procedure or methodology with the hope that it will be of use to production personnel throughout the industry. The end result of such system analysis should be the complete visualization of the performance of a given pumping well at a given time and a set of recommendations to
be followed if significant improvements can be achieved. This approach to well management requires a commitment on the part of operating personnel to the concept of the well as a system of interrelated elements, each of which can have a major effect in changing the efficiency of the system. This concept is relatively foreign to the majority of operators for which a "well" comprises the pumping unit only, or the downhole pump only, or the rods only, depending on their past experience and responsibility. Therefore, successful application of the Total Well Management concept generally includes some training of the operating personnel. This is especially necessary if effective application of modem data acquisition hardware and software is to be introduced in an operation which has been using limited resources.
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