FIELD: oil and gas industry. SUBSTANCE: invention relates to oil industry and can be used in control stations of sucker rod pumping units – SRPU – to determine degree of mechanism balance and optimum position of counterweight on crankshaft of the pumping unit. Proposed method is based on control of instantaneous power and speed of drive engine with the next detection of moments of passage of "dead points" mechanism. According to the method, the consumed energy is evaluated upstream and downstream of the pumping unit rod. Equity ratio is determined based on obtained energy ratios. If its value is different from 100 %, the installation is considered unbalanced and the required values of the counterweight shift to the optimum position are determined from the obtained energy values. EFFECT: higher reliability of the SRPU with control over degree of their balance and determination of the optimum position of the counterweight on the crankshaft of the pumping unit during operation of the unit without using additional hinged sensors.