SDX Energy spuds Egyptian well

North Africa-focused oil and gas company SDX Energy has spud its Ibn Yunus-1X exploration well at South Disouq, Egypt.

SDX's Ibn Yunus-1X well, slated to take around 30 days to drill, was set to target the same conventional natural gas bearing Abu Madi intervals discovered at its SD-1X well back in April 2017 and will be the first of four wells planned across the South Disouq concession.

In its technically approved development plan by the Egyptian authority, SDX had forecast a plateau rate from the SD-1X field, in which it holds a 55% working interest, of 50m standard cubic feet per day of conventional natural gas, but noted that with any exploration success, the field plateau rate could potentially double to 100m.

Production at the South Disouq asset was expected to kick off during the second half of 2018.

Paul Welch, SDX's president and chief executive, said, "The success of the SD-1X well proved the existence of source rock in this area which was our biggest uncertainty pre-drill. The technical work that's been completed by our team after the first successful well has provided us with additional confidence in our ability to identify conventional natural gas bearing intervals within the 3D seismic data set."

"We currently have over 300 km2 of 3D seismic in the block with identified potential of up to 2 trillion cubic feet (gross) of conventional natural gas. Success at Ibn Yunus will de-risk a large portion of that volume which would be very significant for our shareholders. I look forwarding to reporting on our results in due course," he added.

As of 1040 GMT, shares had ticked up 0.50% to 50.25p.