Meseda and Rabul are two producing onshore oil fields in the West Gharib concession in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. The Meseda field has been producing since 2011, whereas the Rabul field came on stream in 2017.
Dublin International Petroleum operates the fields with 50% interest, while the remaining 50% is held by SDX Energy, an oil and gas exploration and production company headquartered in the UK and focused on Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
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SDX Energy was formed in October 2015 through the merger of Sea Dragon Energy and Madison PetroGas, a Canadian company that held 50% working interest in the Meseda field.
The Egyptian authorities approved a ten-year extension to the production service agreement (PSA) governing the Meseda and Rabul oil fields in March 2021.
With the PSA extended until November 2031, the project partners initiated a development drilling campaign to drill up to 13 infill production wells to improve and maintain production levels of the Meseda and Rabul fields in October 2021.
Oil production at West Gharib
The average gross production from the Meseda and Rabul fields stood at 2,481 barrels of oil per day (bopd) for the nine months ended September 2021.
The ongoing development drilling campaign is intended to boost the combined output of the two West Gharib fields to 4,000-4,500bopd by 2023.
Location and reservoir details
The Meseda and Rabul onshore oil fields are located in the 22km2 Block-H development lease of the West Gharib concession in the Egyptian Eastern Desert, 230km south-east of Cairo.
The Meseda reservoir comprises oil-bearing Asl sands of the Miocene-aged Rudeis Formation. The Rabul field, located 3km north-west of Meseda, produces from Yusr and Bakr sands of the Rudeis Formation.
Meseda and Rabul fields development details
The West Gharib operation comprises 22 existing producer wells along with electrical submersible pumps spread across the Meseda and Rabul fields, and a central processing facility (CPF) located at Meseda.
The Meseda field has 14 production wells, whereas the remaining eight producer wells are located in the Rabul field, which is connected to the CPF through a 3km-long flowline.
MSD-15, MSD-16, and MSD-19 are the three latest wells that came on stream at Meseda. MSD-15 and MSD-16 commenced production in 2018, followed by MSD-19 in 2019.
The Rabul-1 and Rabul-2 production wells in the Rabul field were brought on stream in 2017, followed by the commissioning of the Rabul-5, Rabul-4 and Rabul-2R wells in 2018. Rabul-7 and Rabul-3 started production in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
As many as 22 well workovers were completed at the two fields from 2020 to 2021.
West Gharib development drilling details
The West Gharib partners plan to drill up to 13 infill production wells, including 11 in the Meseda field and two in the Rabul field, as part of the drilling campaign initiated in October 2021.
The MSD-21 well in Meseda is the first well to be drilled in the ongoing drilling campaign. The drilling of the well was completed in December 2021. It encountered 62.3ft of net oil pay in the sandstone of the Asl Formation.
MSD-25, which is expected to be spudded in January 2022, will be the second well to be drilled in the campaign.
