The South Damas exploration well has been drilled to test a prospect in the Sidi Salim formation in the South East Mansoura concession, in which Melrose holds a 100% working interest. The well encountered the top reservoir at a depth of 4345ft and penetrated 76ft of net gas pay with good reservoir properties.
On completion of the South Damas well, the EDC-9 rig will be used to drill another Sidi Salim prospect in the South East Mansoura concession called Tall Rak. This prospect is on trend with other discoveries, including the Tamad field, and has unrisked reserves of 190bcfe and a chance of success of 34%.
In mid January, the company commenced the acquisition of the first 2-D seismic survey to be shot over the Mesaha exploration concession (Melrose working interest 40%) in southern Egypt. The concession has an area of approximately 57,000sqkm and is thought to contain a large untested sedimentary basin.
The objective of the seismic survey is to confirm the basin architecture and depth, and in the event that this yields encouraging results, the company plans to drill an exploration well on the block in the fourth quarter of 2010, the company said.
David Thomas, CEO of Melrose, said: “We are very pleased with the results from the South Damas well and are now looking forward to drilling the Tall Rak prospect which, in the success case, could be highly material to the company. We are also looking forward to reviewing some early results from the Mesaha 2-D seismic survey which will start to provide an indication of the potential of this virgin frontier exploration basin.”
