Routine repairs and preventive maintenance of the oil gathering system or electric distribution grid require the restriction of oil production in Llanos Norte Field, causing partial or total field shutdown, which implies turning off the Artificial Lift Systems (ALS). In the days after starting up, an increase in the number of downhole equipment failures was noticed. Analysis of those failures showed a proportional relation between the number of days the system was shut down and the number of ALS failures. Moreover, common failure patterns were identified, such as high sand production and power cable failures.

The Production and Artificial Lift departments of Occidental de Colombia developed a Controlled Shutdown Plan for ALS, taking into account that partial or total shutdowns were planned; the plan was implemented for the first time in June 2013. After the first application, it was complemented with a companion Startup Plan to further expand the successful results. During the first year of application, a reduction was observed in the number of downhole equipment failures associated with high sand production. As a result, the previous analysis for the Shutdown and Startup Plan is being used for each well whenever a shutdown is programmed because of logs, drilling of neighboring wells, or other reasons.