Apache of the US has made a new gas discovery on its wholly-owned Matruh concession in Egypt's Western Desert, where it has made a number of significant finds in recent years, writes Nassir Shirkhani.
Apache president Steven Farris said the Jade-1X well tested 25.6 million cubic feet of gas per day from the Jurassic Upper Safa in the Khatatba formation.
"Jade-1X is an important discovery for Apache in that it extends the known productive limits of the Jurassic gas fairway almost 12 miles (19 kilometres) south-west of existing Jurassic production," Farris said.
"This discovery also suggests significant reserve potential exists in multiple Alam El Bueib (AEB) reservoir objectives."
Apache is now looking to drill five more Jurassic and two AEB exploratory wells on the concession this year.
Jade-1X logged a total 65 feet of net pay in the Jurassic Upper Safa.
Completion tests were carried out on a one-inch choke with 1382 pounds per square inch of flowing wellhead pressure from perforations between 13,850 feet and 13,882 feet to evaluate 32 feet of net pay.
"An additional 33 feet of Upper Safa net pay in three sands between 13,480 feet and 13,750 feet will be perforated.
Gas from those zones will be commingled with that of the lower zone when the well comes on production around mid-year," Apache said.
Jade-1X also logged 217 feet of pay in the AEB 3D, 3G and 6 sands.
Apache plans to move the rig about three kilometres north of the Jade-1X discovery to appraise the AEB reservoirs.
© Upstream 2007
