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Reducing receivables and finding oil in Egypt
EgyPt
THE amount owed by Egypt to Dana Gas has continued to shrink since the end of the year, the United Arab Emirates-based company reported on June 30. Dana said it had received US$78mn in the rst half of the year, with US$48mn in June.
This amount was made up of US$38 mil- lion from the government and US$10mn from the sale of a shipment of condensate from El Wastani, the second this year.
Of the amount paid by the government in June, US$30mn was Dana’s share of the industry payment, which covers Cairo’s e orts to reduce its overdue receivables to zero by the end of this year. As of the end of 2018, Dana was owed US$140mn and this had fallen to US$125mn by the end of June.
Dana’s CEO, Patrick Allman-Ward, said the government was making “steady progress ... in achieving its target of paying all the overdue receivables by year-end. ese payments will provide funds to execute our current onshore workover programme and contribute towards the costs of drilling Merak-1, our deepwater explorationwellinBlock6,”alsoknownasNorth El Arish.
Results from Merak-1 are expected in the third quarter of the year. Work on this well began in May, in 755 metres of water. e block is in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin. Most notably, Eni discovered the Zohr eld in its Shorouk licence in 2015. is concession was awarded to the Italian company at the same time as Dana won its North El Arish stake. is is the rst of three prospects on the licence that Dana has said have the potential to hold tril- lions of cubic feet of gas.
While the company’s receivables are reduc- ing, its production in Egypt is also waning. In the rst quarter of the year, Dana’s output was down 7% year on year, at around 34,300 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd). is was driven by natural decline and it was partly o set by the start-up of the Balsam-8 well in the last quarter of 2018, adding more than 4,500 boepd.
West gharib
Further positive news from Egypt came last week from SDX Energy, which on June 26 said it had found heavy oil at the Rabul-7 well, in the West Gharib concession.
The company’s statement said it had been drilled to a total depth of 1,622 metres and that around 40.8 metres of net heavy oil pay had been found, in the yusr and Bakr formations. Aver- age porosity was put at 18% and completed as a producer. It has been hooked up to central pro- cessing facilities (CPF) at Meseda, owing at an average rate of 415 bpd over ve days.
SDX’s interim CEO, Mark Reid, welcomed the development. “ e well was brought online in a timely and cost-e cient manner and will provide further support to our 2019 production guidance for this asset of gross 4,000-4,200 bpd. Another development well is planned for the concession in [the second half of 2019]. e nal location of this well is dependent on government approvals and we will update the market on this in due course.”
e company has also bene ted from pro- gress in reducing its receivables. As of the end of March, it reported, the amount it was owed had reduced to US$21.7mn, down from US$24.3mn at the end of 2018.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 26 02•July•2019