Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Nov. 7 -- Adelaide-based Beach Petroleum NL received ministerial approval to acquire from Tri-Ocean Energy a 20% interest in the North Shadwan oil concession in the Gulf of Suez. Beach will pay $110 million for the share, and Tri-Ocean will retain a 30% interest.
BP Exploration (Delta) is operator of North Shadwan, which contains three undeveloped oil discoveries along with several attractive exploration prospects.
The government also approved development of the field. First production is scheduled for 2009.
Appraisal drilling is under way on the NS394-1A Burtocal discovery well, which found oil in late 2007 when it penetrated a thick oil column in the regionally prolific Nubia formation reservoir.
Burtocal-2 is testing separate fault compartments in the structure and will assist in determining potential reserves leading to a selection of development options.
Beach also received ministerial approval to acquire from operator Santos Egypt a 20% interest in the South East July concession, also located in the Gulf of Suez.
The first well (South July-1) will be drilled in December about 10 km west of existing Saqqara oil field.
The well is targeting potential reserves up to 100 million bbl in stacked reservoir sands within the Miocene and Nubia formations. July, Ramadan, and Morgan fields are nearby.
Santos will retain 40%, and Dana Petroleum has the other 40% interest.
