SDX Energy jumps as Egypt drilling looms, Moroccan operations stall

AIM-quoted oil and gas explorer SDX Energy gave investors an update on its North African operations on Tuesday, announcing that while things in Egypt had picked up speed, its Moroccan project had been stalled due to a faulty rig.

SDX announced it had inked a contract for an ST-6 rig, set to be used to drill its Ibn Yunus-1X exploration well in South Disouq, Egypt. This would see four firm and one contingent well brought into production with spudding anticipated to start in mid-March.

Operations at Ibn Yunus-1X were anticipated to take 30-40 days and will target the same Abu Madi conventional natural gas bearing intervals that had previously been discovered at its SD-1X asset in April 2017.

Elsewhere in Egypt, SDX had spudded its Rabul 5 development well on the West Gharib Concession.

However, in Morocco, drilling has been delayed at its KSS-2 development well after a top drive unit on one of its rigs had experienced an undisclosed failure. SDX said the unit was being repaired and with drilling set to recommence on Tuesday afternoon, it anticipated the rig would reach its target depth within "seven to ten days."

Paul Welch, president and chief executive of SDX, said, "We are pleased to have secured a drilling rig for our upcoming drilling campaign in Egypt, which is set to commence in March. The Ibn Yunus-1X and Kelvin-1X wells are targeting up to 150bcf and, if successful, will be tied back to the SD-1X processing facility."

"Following our discovery at Rabul 2 in October 2017, we plan to drill two development wells on the West Gharib concession this year, as we believe the licence holds significant development potential and further upside for all our stakeholders. We look forward to updating our shareholders on our exciting drilling campaigns in both Egypt and Morocco in due course," he added.

As of 0900 GMT, shares had jumped 17.07% to 0.960p.