SDX Energy announces gas discovery onshore Morocco

Following the OYF-2 discovery which was announced on 28 January 2020 and successfully tested last week, and this BMK-1 discovery, the company can confirm that the prospectivity in its existing core production and development area extends to the north. As a result, management estimates that, based upon these well results and the existing 3D seismic over the area, the company has opened a new play fairway and de-risked up to 20 billion ft³ of P50 close-by prospective resources for future drilling of which approximately 10 billion ft3 is located in and around BMK-1.

Using Measurement While Drilling (MWD) tools, management estimates that BMK-1 encountered a total of approximately 0.9 billion ft3 of gas in the Upper and Lower Guebbas targets, in line with pre-drill estimates. However, due to down-hole issues, only the Upper target was wireline logged and will be completed. Management estimate that the Upper target has approximately 0.4 billion ft3 of recoverable gas and that the gas in the Lower target will be recoverable during the development of the new play fairway de-risked by the OYF-2 and BMK-1 wells.

The rig will now move to the Lalla Mimouna concession to drill the potentially play-opening LMS-2 well. With the drilling of this tenth well, the company will have fulfilled the three objectives of the campaign which were; (i) to add reserves in and around its existing infrastructure; (ii) to determine if its existing producing area extends to the north; and (iii) to test the prospectivity within the Lalla Mimouna concession. Furthermore, given that the last two planned wells would not have been immediately tied into the company's infrastructure or contributed cash flows in the near term, the company has decided to preserve its capital and postpone these last two wells, at no incremental cost, for a future campaign. Given all of this, the campaign will conclude after LMS-2.

In Egypt, the SD-6X (Salah) exploration well at South Disouq has been drilled to a total depth of 3167 m. The well encountered 1.7 m of net gas bearing sand in the Kafr El Sheikh Formation (average porosity 34%), 1 m of net gas bearing sand in the Abu-Madi Formation which has 143 m of high quality net reservoir (average porosity 24%) and 258 m of high quality net reservoir in the Qawasim Formation (average porosity 20%). The gas sands in both the Kafr El Sheikh and Abu Madi were deemed to be sub-economic and the Qawasim has low gas saturation. The thinner than expected gas columns in SD-6X encountered is attributable to the absence of a sealing mechanism in the stratigraphic traps being targeted by the well. The well results are currently being analysed.

The rig will now move to the site of the next drilling location on the South Disouq licence, the SD-12X (Sobhi) exploration well, which is to the north and structurally updip of the Ibn Yunus discovery and the SD-6X well.

The result of SD-6X is not anticipated to have any technical read across to SD-12X which is targeting a management estimate of 33 billion ft3  equivalent and which is expected to spud in the next two to three weeks.

Mark Reid, CEO of SDX, commented: "The BMK-1 result in Morocco is excellent news, confirming that together with the OYF-2 discovery in January, we can now plan to develop a material and valuable new prospective area to the north of our existing infrastructure in a market where we are the only gas producer and where we receive gas prices of between US$10-12 per million ft3. An additional 20 billion ft3 of P50 prospective resources has the potential to significantly extend reserve life and support lower CO₂ emissions at our customers.

After the SD-6X well in Egypt, we can look forward to spudding the SD-12X well in the weeks ahead, where there is no expected technical read across from SD-6X."

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/04032020/sdx-energy-announces-gas-discovery-onshore-morocco/