A remedial campaign conducted by the Maretap joint venture has restored output in Ezzaouia field in Tunisia to 750 b/d of oil, and the Ezzaouia-1 well is expected to return to production in the second half of December 2012, said Candax Energy Inc., Toronto.
The 5-month campaign by Maretap, a 50-50 joint venture managed by Tunisia’s state ETAP and Candax’s 100% subsidiary Ecumed, involved remedial action to eliminate scale deposit in the production tubing and at the jet pump level. Five producer wells are back on production.
The rig is being demobilized on Ezzzaoia-1 and civil work will start shortly to install a sucker rod pump. The change from jet pump should optimize the production from the well and may lead to a similar changeout at other Ezzaouia wells.
A workover of Ezzaouia-2 cured a recent leak caused by sour Zeebag formation fluid on the upper part of the 7-in. liner, and production has been as high as 186 b/d as the oil-water cut has improved.
Several studies for new activation methods and scale inhibition are being conducted and should quickly lead to a better control of the scale creation and deposit issues and will improve longer-term decline rates, Candax said. Ongoing G&G studies are aimed at hiking production via sidetracks and other methods to access behind-pipe oil.