The drilling campaign is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2020
Image: The drilling campaign will be undertaken by an advanced North American rig. Photo courtesy of John R Perry from Pixabay.
UK-based SDX Energy has commenced a 12 well drilling campaign in its operated Gharb Basin acreage in Morocco.
The drilling campaign will target a mean 15 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gross unrisked prospective resources in the acreage.
In Morocco, SDX owns a 75% working interest in the Sebou concession, located in the Gharb Basin.
Expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2020, the drilling campaign will be undertaken by an advanced North American rig.
SDX will test multiple wells back to back in each campaign
The first seven wells in the drilling programme are located in the company’s core producing concessions at Sebou and Gharb Centre. The lower-risk appraisal wells will target prospects that are located near to existing infrastructure.
SDX said that the well can be tied in quickly, at a low cost.
Further, the wells are said to have the same geological risk to the discoveries that are already made and producing in the area.
SDX interim CEO and CFO Mark Reid said: “”SDX is pleased to announce the start of its drilling campaign in Morocco. The 12 wells have three key objectives. The first objective is to drill seven lower risk wells in our existing core producing area. These wells are close to existing infrastructure and will increase reserves for the continued supply of gas to our existing customers.
Drilling on the seven appraisal wells will be followed by two step-out exploration wells further to the north in Gharb Centre.
The two exploration wells will target prospects that are similar to the discoveries made in the Sebou and Gharb Centre.
The wells are located outside the reach of the company’s existing infrastructure.
Reid said: “Our second objective is to drill two step-out exploration wells to the north of our core production area which, if successful, would open up new, target-rich acreage for future drilling.
The last three wells included in the campaign are expected to be higher-risk exploration wells in the Lalla Mimouna Nord concession.
Reid added: “The final objective of the campaign is to test larger but higher-risk prospects in the Lalla Mimouna Nord concession. To do this, we plan to drill up to three wells, however, if the first well does not meet our expectations, we may move the rig back to our core producing area and complete the campaign by drilling two further lower-risk, but smaller, prospects to add additional reserves.
“We expect the campaign to complete in Q1 2020 and we look forward to updating the market on progress in due course.”
To lessen equipment mobilisation costs, SDX will test multiple wells back to back in each campaign.
In February, the company secured exploration rights for the Moulay Bouchta Ouest and Lalla Mimouna Sud onshore blocks in Morocco.