Eni said that it has made an onshore oil discovery on the A-2X exploration prospect in its South West Meleiha license in the Faghur Basin located in the Egyptian Western Desert.
Image: Onshore drilling. Photo: courtesy of Stuart Miles/Freedigitalphotos.net.
The Italian oil and gas major made the oil discovery following the drilling of the SWM A-2X exploratory well to a total depth of 5,090m. Eni reported that the well intersected 18m of light oil in the Paleozoic sandstones of Dessouky Formation of Carboniferous age.
SWM A-2X is the first well to be drilled by the Italian firm to explore the deep geological sequences of the Faghur Basin. The well also came across other hydrocarbon levels in the Alam El Bueib sandstones of Cretaceous Age.
Eni, in a statement, said: “The well has been opened to production in the Dessouky sandstones and delivered 2,300 barrel of oil per day (BOPD) of light oil (32° API) and 0.4 MMSCFD of associated gas.”
The company, upon getting competent authority’s approval, plans to link the production from the A-2X field to the existing infrastructure located in the vicinity and subsequently transport it through already available pipelines to El Hamra Terminal.
Eni holds a 100% stake in South West Meleiha license through its subsidiary IEOC.
The oil and gas major said that in addition to the development of the A2-X field based on the outcome of its appraisal activities, it will carry out drilling of other nearby exploratory prospects in the near term.
Last week, Eni and its partners in the Shorouk Block, offshore Egypt started production from the second production unit (T-1) of the Zohr gas project. The commissioning of the second production unit is anticipated to increase the installed capacity of the Zohr development by 400MMScfd.
In another part of the world, Eni has won 100% participating stake in the East Ganal deepwater exploration block located in the Kutei Basin, in the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan.
Spanning an area of nearly 5,100km2, the East Ganal block adjoins the Muara Bakau operated by Eni and East Sepinggan production sharing contracts in the Makassar Strait.