Apex International Energy (Apex) has announced a new oil discovery in Southeast Meleiha Concession (SEM), located in the Western Desert of Egypt
The discovery was achieved at the SEMZ-11X well located 10km west of Zarif field, the nearest producing field. The well was drilled to a total depth of 5,700 feet and encountered 65 feet of oil pay in the Cretaceous sandstones of the Bahariya and Abu Roash G formations. Testing of the Bahariya resulted in a peak rate of 2,100 barrels of oil per day with no water. Additional uphole pay exists in the Bahariya and Abu Roash G formations that can be added to the production stream in the future.
The SEMZ-11X was Apex’s second exploration well in an ongoing three-well program following the acquisition and processing of 1,342sqkm of 3D seismic data in 2019-2020. The first well, the SEMZ-1X drilled last month, also discovered Bahariya oil with 17 feet of indicated pay.
“These oil discoveries are an important step in our company’s development and in validating our strategy to grow an oil and gas company of substance through a combination of drilling and acquisitions,” said Apex’s founder and CEO, Roger Plank.
Plank added, “The presence of hydrocarbons in both the 1X and 11X confirms our geologic model and significantly enhances the prospectivity of a number of other mapped prospects and leads across our 2,534sqkm.”
The third well of the current drilling campaign, the SEMZ-3X, is scheduled to commence later this month. Apex plans to drill the 3X to a depth of 5,700 feet in search of oil in the Bahariya formation. The SEMZ-3X location is five kilometres east of Zarif field, which also produces from the Bahariya.
