This article presents a contribution for an oil wells intelligent management system called SGPA that nowadays manages about 700 oil wells using the rod pumping lift method at Bahia State, Brazil. The intelligent management system will be applied on oil wells using the gradual pumping method. In this oil pumping method, the torque on the rod is very important for detection of operational problems. It will be considered that the well is driven by an induction motor. A torque estimation method on rod and some results from laboratory are presented.