Lee Nirider & Keith Fangmeier, Marathon Oil Company; Tarek Ben Rhouma, Maretap Oil Company; William Coleman, Coleman Pump Company
Marathon's Ezzaouia #8 well is located in the Ezzaouia concession in the Zarzis permit area of Eastern Tunisia. The well is completed as an oil producer in a 7300" Jurassic sandstone and has never sustained steady production with the existing 3-l/2" tubing. Systems analysis suggest that the well could flow, at least temporarily, with smaller tubing or could sustain production for a much longer time with artificial lift. Installation of a rod pumping system would be an easy decision in most parts of the world, but due to a lack of workover rigs in Tunisia a rod pumping system was not selected. Furthermore, the Jurassic reservoir is a depletion drive reservoir with a extremely limited water drive and thus was not a candidate for gas lift with wireline retrievable gas lift valves.. However, an innovative artificial lift approach utilizing a coiled tubing unit, 1.50" OD coiled tubing and a casing free hydraulic jet pump was selected for producing the well. See Table 1 for additional data on Ezzaouia #8.