Page 13 - AfrOil Week 42 2021

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

SDX Energy spuds MSD-21 infill

development well at Meseda field

EGYPT AIM-LISTED SDX Energy spudded the MSD- barrel Brent crude, West Gharib is currently a
21 infill development well on the Meseda field in very high margin asset in our portfolio, and the
Egypt’s Eastern Desert on October 16. MSD-21 and subsequent wells will boost the
The company announced the development production and cash flow from these fields in
in a statement dated October 18, saying it had the coming months.”
begun drilling work two days earlier. The new SDX is an international oil and gas explo-
well is targeting the Asl formation, which is ration, production and development company
located at a depth of approximately 3,200 feet headquartered in London, United Kingdom,
(975 metres). with a principal focus on the Middle East and
SDX anticipates that the well will take around North Africa (MENA). In Egypt, SDX has stakes
four weeks to drill, complete and tie in to exist- in two producing assets: a 55% operated interest
ing infrastructure facilities. It has also estimated in the South Disouq gas field in the Nile River
the gross cost of drilling and tie-in operations Delta and a 50% non-operated interest in the
at $900,000 to $1mn. The company expects the West Gharib concession, located onshore in the
well to have an immediate effect on cashflow and Eastern Desert, adjacent to the Gulf of Suez. ™
result in a payback period of less than one year at
current oil prices.
The MSD-21 well is likely to produce at an
initial gross rate of around 300 barrels per day
(bpd), SDX said in a statement. It will be the first
of 12 wells that SDX is slated to drill within the
framework of its current drilling programme,
which targets the Meseda and Rabul oilfields
in the West Gharib concession in the Eastern
Desert. This campaign, which is fully funded,
is designed to boost the fields’ production from
the current level of 2,400 barrels bpd to 3,500-
4,000 bpd by early 2023.
Mark Reid, the CEO of SDX, commented:
“In today’s higher oil price environment, I am
excited to announce the spudding of the first
well in a 12-well infill development campaign
on our West Gharib oil fields in Egypt. With
first half netback of $33 per barrel at $65 per Meseda is a field within the West Gharib concession (Image: SDX Energy)

Russia’s Tatneft resumes exploration

drilling in Libya’s Ghadames basin

LIBYA RUSSIA’S Tatneft, in co-operation with Libya’s Libya. The Russian company sank the well to a
National Oil Corp. (NOC), has resumed explo- depth of about 3,900 feet (1,190 metres) before
ration drilling in the country after a 10-year it suspended work at the site in February 2011.
hiatus. This move makes the company, which is It now aims to drill to a target depth of 8,700 feet
based in the Russian internal republic of Tatar- (2,650 metres) and expects to complete the well
stan, one of the first foreign oil operators to in about 45 days.
return to Libya. The company first obtained concessions for
As of last week, Tatneft had already sent a fields in the Ghadames basin, which is believed
team to drill the B-82-4 exploration well at Ham- to hold more than 3.5bn barrels of oil in recov-
ada, a site in the Ghadames Basin in western erable reserves, in October 2005.

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