SDX Energy to plug and abandon Morocco well

SDX Energy, the North Africa focused oil and gas company, said it will plug and abandon the latest of the six Morocco wells in the Sebou permit after striking uncommercial saturations of gas.

The well was drilled to a total depth of 1293 meters encountering 8 net meters of high quality reservoir interval in the Gaddari and Guebbas sequences with an average porosity of 30 per cent, the company said in a statement, adding that although the intervals came in on prognosis, they had low gas saturation and were not deemed to be commercial.

The KSS-2 well is the sixth in the company’s current nine well campaign, of which four wells have been commercial discoveries. As a result of the campaign’s success to date, the result of the KSS-2 well is not expected to impact the company’s previously announced planned production increase in Morocco in 2018, SDX said.

Unlike the previously drilled targets, the KSS-2 prospect was on the up-thrown side of the main bounding fault in the Ksiri area. This fault appears to have isolated the KSS-2 well from the source rock, resulting in low gas saturations.

The next well in the campaign, the SAH-2 well, will be located on the downthrown side of the fault, drilling a similar structure to the company’s recently successful wells. SDX Energy expects the reservoirs targeted by the SAH-2 well will have a higher probability of being commercially charged than the KSS-2 well.

The company will not plug and abandon the KSS-2 well and the drilling rig will move to the SAH-2 drilling location.

“Whilst the KSS 2 well was not a commercial success, we are viewing this one result in the context of what is already a very successful drilling campaign with four out of six discoveries to date,” said Paul Welch, president and CEO of SDX.

“Using directional drilling equipment for the first time in the basin, we drilled a step out location in order to try to prove up a new concept, and potentially new volumes. Whilst KSS 2 was not successful, our belief is that this result proves that the main bounding fault provides a good seal and therefore gives us a further confidence in the forthcoming prospects. We are looking forward to drilling the final three wells in this programme and reporting on their results in due course,” he added.