Italian supermajor Eni said new resources have been discovered in the Abu Rudeis Sidri development lease, in the Gulf of Suez where the operating company Petrobel, equally held by Eni and by national oil company Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), drilled an appraisal well of the discovery of Sidri South, announced last July.
The Sidri 36 appraisal well, drilled to assess the field continuity westward in a down dip position with respect to Sidri-23 discovery well, encountered an important hydrocarbon column in the clastic sequences of the Nubia Formation (200 meters of hydrocarbon column).
According to Eni, this new result continues the positive track record of the "near field" exploration in its historical concessions in Egypt and prove how the use of new play concepts and of the technology allows to reevaluate areas where exploration was considered having reached a high level of maturity.
The well will be completed and put into production in the next few days with an expected initial flow rate of about 5,000 barrels per day. Petrobel immediately conceived a rapid development plan for the new discovery with a "fast-track" approach, leveraging on existing infrastructures in the vicinity of the well and maximizing facilities synergies; this strategy will be applied also in future activities in the Sidri area with the next delineation and development wells connected to the production in a short time.
The Sidri South discovery, which is estimated to contain about 200 million barrels of oil in place, will be reassessed following these new results.