UK-based SDX Energy Inc announced Monday a new gas discovery in the SD-4X well at the South Disouq Concession in Egypt.
The well was drilled down to a depth of 7,806 feet and it encountered 89 feet of net conventional natural gas pay in the Abu Madi horizon.
Significantly, SDX said the well was “on prognosis” and that the reservoir section had a similar quality but was thicker than the original SD-1X discovery well.
“We are extremely encouraged by today’s result at South Disouq,” said Paul Welch, SDX chief executive, in a statement.
“We had anticipated a thickening of the pay section as we moved away from the crest of the structure, and this has now been confirmed.
“We will now accelerate our development activity in the area. It’s our intent to establish production from both the South Disouq and Ibn Yunus areas before year end 2018.”
SD-4X is due to be completed as a producer from the Abu Madi reservoir, and a test programme will follow once the rig has demobilised. Production start-up at SD-4X is anticipated in the fourth quarter of this year.
Next in the drill schedule is the SD-3X well, which will be the second of two appraisal’s in the 2018 programme.
Morocco well needs further work
Elsewhere, the company has noted the completion of a test programme at the LMS-1 well, in the Lalla Mimouna Nord permit in Morocco.
SDX said that the well flowed at sub-commercial rates though it believes they are temporary, resulting from damage in the well caused by fluids that were used whilst drilling.
It is planned that a stimulation program will be designed and implemented and the LMS-1 well test will be repeated.
“At LMS-1, we were very surprised by the results of the flow test,” Welch said.
“The well flowed a significant amount of gas whist drilling requiring the drilling mud weight to be increased to control the well so it could be logged and completed.
“That said, this part of the basin is a frontier area and this was the first time this section had been drilled, so the composition of the reservoir section was unknown. Fortunately, we have a complete data set from this well which will allow us to quickly and accurately design a stimulation program for this, which we are confident will work.”
Welch added: “Overall we are very pleased with our recent drilling activity.
“In Morocco we had seven successful results from our nine well program and in Egypt we have had three successes out of the four wells drilled to date with one well to go.
“I am looking forward to updating our shareholders on the well test results of the SD-4X, the spud of SD-3X and the progress we are making on our development activity in South Disouq along with our plans to retest the LMS-1 in Morocco in due course.”
