TransGlobe Energy announces Egyptian oil discovery

07 September 2014

Explorer encounters 42 feet of net oil pay at third exploratory well

Canada-based oil and gas explorer TransGlobe Energy has made an oil discovery with its third exploratory well in its North West Gharib concession.

The well was drilled to a depth of 5,360 feet and encountered 42 feet of net oil pay, based on well logs and oil recovered on wireline samples.

The sandstone encountered in the well has similar permeability and porosity to the main Arta and East Arta, wells which produced in excess of 1,000 barrels a day (b/d) unstimulated, according to a drilling update released by TransGlobe on 3 September.

The company says it is prioritising appraisal drilling to gain more accurate estimates of the size of the find. The latest well was drilled near the northern edge of the region it has explored using 3D seismic technology and the northern limit to the new pool is undefined at this time.

New 3D seismic data is currently being acquired on these lands and will be available in early 2015.

This find is the latest in a string of successful wells for TransGlobe. In July, it announced it had successfully struck oil with its first exploratory well in the concession.

TransGlobe plans to drill a total of 18 wells before the end of the year.

The company has also won a new concession in Egypt’s Western Desert. It now has a 100 per cent working interest in the 1,946-square-kilometre North West Sitra concession, located immediately to the west of the company’s South Ghazalat concession in the Abu Gharadig Basin.

The concession will have a seven-year exploration term, which will commence when it has been passed into law and has been divided into two 3.5-year (42 month) exploration phases. The deal is expected to be ratified by late 2014, according to TransGlobe.

The new concession provides for the approval of 20-year development leases on commercial discoveries.

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