Egypt eastern desert exploration turns up oil

G. Alan Petzet
Exploration Editor

Discoveries are popping up and oil transportation plans are being made as exploration gears up in one corner of Egypt's eastern desert.

The eastern desert, the area south of the Nile delta lying between the Nile River and Gulf of Suez/Red Sea, saw only three wells drilled in 1995, notes Egyptian General Petroleum Corp.

That year the few eastern desert fields produced about 25,000 b/d of crude, down about 5% from 1994 and less than 3% of Egypt's oil production.

The area's contribution could begin to rise soon, however. Exploratory drilling has turned up several discoveries west of Hurghada. One operator said one of the wildcats may have identified a significant new sub-basin.

Seagull's program

Seagull Energy Corp., Houston, plans to start trucking oil in third quarter 1997 from the 63,000 acre South Hurghada concession, where it has 100% interest.

It will build from an initial 800 b/d to 4,000 b/d by yearend.

Seagull is moving to apply for a development lease covering South Hurghada's productive area. Its first well, Abu Marwa-1, has been completed after recovering 28° gravity oil from an undisclosed interval.

Logs at Seagull's Wadi El Sahl 3 indicated three pay zones in Miocene Nukhul, two of which were tested. A lower Nukhul zone was not tested. A middle Nukhul zone tested 1,251 b/d of 30° gravity oil, and an upper Nukhul zone pumped an estimated 500 b/d of 30° gravity oil.

Wadi El Sahl 3 directly offsets two successful Wadi El Sahl exploratory wells that flowed at rates of 3,900 and 1,040 b/d of oil since 1994. Seagull acquired the concession from Esso Egypt Inc. in 1996.

Seagull earlier this month spudded its first well on the 6.8 million acre East Beni Suef concession. It lies largely east of the Nile for a considerable distance south of Cairo (OGJ, Nov. 4, 1996, p. 96). Working interests are 50-50 with Apache Corp., Houston.

Canadian operators

Naftex Energy Corp., Vancouver, B.C., said its Rabeh-1 discovery may have identified an as yet unnamed sub-basin. The Seagull and Naftex discoveries lie west of the traditionally agreed western boundary of the Gulf of Suez basin.

Rabeh-1, west of Hurghada on the West Esh El Mallaha concession, was still being tested in mid-June. It flowed 1,570 b/d of 28-30° gravity oil from Cretaceous Nubia/Matulla at 5,953-60 ft.

The thinnest of three overlying Miocene Nukhul intervals to be tested flowed 2,160 b/d of 28° gravity oil. None of the tests yielded water.

Naftex, a unit of Coplex Resources NL, Hobart, Tasmania, was to spud Fayez-1 about 2.5 km north of Rabeh-1 in late June. Rabeh-1 is about 5 km north of Seagull's Wadi El Sahl oil field.

A third exploratory well has been added to the program, Coplex said.

Interests in the concession are Naftex and Cabre Exploration (Cyprus) Ltd. 50% each. West Esh El Mallaha will cover about 333,000 acres after a mandatory relinquishment in July 1997.

Petrojet, an EGPc subsidiary, is studying feasibility of an oil pipeline from Wadi El Sahl via Rabeh to the Ras al Dahar terminal on the Gulf of Suez, Coplex said.

Petroleum geology

Coplex said the concession covers a failed arm of the main Gulf of Suez rift system. It is bounded for the most part on both sides by granitic outcrops at surface with pre-rift and Cretaceous sediments flanking the basin.

The basin's overall structure is a large half-graben with a regional dip to the southwest. Its western edge is bounded by a major easterly dipping fault.

The stratigraphic sequence includes Paleozoic, resting unconformably on peneplaned Precambrian structure, overlain by Mesozoic and Tertiary rocks.

A mid-1995 well, NW Mataar-1, came in downdip and low to prognosis. It preceded interpretation of a 166 sq km 3D seismic survey over southern West Esh El Mallaha and northern South Hurghada. Still, the well encountered more than 100 ft of significant live oil shows in Matulla.

Seagull's Abu Marwa-1 is on a separate closed feature that appears to extend into West Esh El Mallaha's southeast corner, Coplex said.

The concession is in the fourth year of a seven year exploration period.

Other exploration

TPIC of Cairo previously delineated a Miocene Kareem deposit near Ras el Bahar, but this field apparently has never been placed on production. TPIC attempted to appraise a Marathon/ Chevron/Texaco discovery named Ras El Bahar North-2. That discovery dates to January 1982.

Data from Petroconsultants SA, Houston, show that TPIC's No. 4 well in late 1994 flowed 3,250 b/d of 36° gravity oil and 5 MMcfd of gas from the Early Miocene Kareem formation 3,081-83 m.

A second test in Kareem at 3,046-50 m yielded 1,450 b/d of 50° condensate and 11.5 MMcfd of gas. A drillstem test at 3,127-32 m recovered 11 bbl of oil. TD is 4,042 m.

TPIC estimated 6 million bbl of oil and condensate in place in what appears to be a fault block with a gross reservoir section 86 m thick in the No. 4 well.