SDX Finds More Moroccan Gas

North Africa-focused SDX found more gas in Morocco with its most recent well, with five wells now yielding positive results and with two more wells to go in its nine-well programme, it said March 9. Its previous well, the sixth, was not commercial, it said in February.

Its SAH-2 well, the seventh of its campaign on the Sebou permit, was drilled to a total depth of 1,304 metres and encountered 5.2 metres of net conventional natural gas pay across two zones in the Guebbas and Hoot formations with an average porosity in the pay section of 33%. The well came in on prognosis but with a reservoir thickness above pre-drill expectations.

It will now be completed, tested and connected to existing infrastructure. SDX expects to provide a further update on testing results in early April, it said.

CEO Paul Welch said SAH-2 was the first well in the Gharb basin that was successfully drilled using downhole directional tools. This allowed it to penetrate the crest of two individual targets with a single well-bore and it will use the same technique at its next well, LNB-1, an exploration well in our Lalla Mimouna concession. "By successfully targeting the crests of specific horizons, we now have the ability to improve the recovery efficiency from individual wells," he said.

Investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald described the well as "another great success for SDX," and said the new technique "offers new upside for future wells across this prolific, albeit heavily faulted/compartmentalised basin." It said that success with its next well would "unlock a new area of resources and offer further near term upside for the company."

The latest discovery puts SDX well on the way to increasing production in 2018 to 8-10mn ft³, it said.