SDX Brings Egyptian Well Onstream Early

North Africa-focused explorer SDX brought its wholly-owned Egyptian SD-12X well onstream six weeks early last December, CEO Mark Reid said in a trading update January 5. SD-12X has about 24bn ft³ of recoverable resources and can produce up to 10-12mn ft³/d. At present, the well is producing at about 5-7mn ft³/d and will continue to be monitored to determine its optimum production rate. Its South Disouq licence partner IPR opted not to fund this well, although it can buy its way back in at a higher price.

Reid said production from two of its three core assets beat 2020 guidance. These are South Disouq and Morocco, where production is now back to pre-Covid close down levels as demand from industry is back to normal. Its third core asset (West Gharib) came in at the top end of guidance. At the same time, its capital expenditure last year was about $1mn below guidance of $26mn.

The company ended the year debt-free with about $9.6mn of cash and $2.5mn of undrawn availability from its EBRD facility, which will increase to $10mn in the coming months after the standard conditions precedent in its new facility are satisfied. SDX is planning to drill nine wells this year and expects to discover more resource and continuing cash generation.

SDX' average entitlement production for 2020 was about 6,400 barrels of oil equivalent (boe)/d, an increase of 58% from 2019 and exceeding 2020 guidance of 6,000-6,250 boe/d. Production from all core assets either exceeded or was at the top end of guidance.

SDX has agreed a new five-year, $10mn facility, with EBRD which is expected to be available for drawing before the end of Q1'21 upon satisfaction of standard conditions precedent. Together with cash generated from operations, SDX is fully funded for all of its planned activities in 2021. An NGW interview with SDX CFO Nick Box on its Moroccan and Egyptian operations may be read here.