Apache Makes Two Discoveries Onshore Egypt

Apache has made two discoveries in Egypt. The Syrah 1X wildcat, on the company's 100 percent-contractor-interest Khalda Concession, tested 46.5 million cubic feet (MMcf) of natural gas per day. The Tanzanite 1X discovery, located onshore on Apache's West Mediterranean Concession, test- flowed 5,296 barrels of oil and 7.4 MMcf of gas per day.

The Syrah 1X, completed in the Jurassic Lower Safa formation, was tested on a 48/64-inch choke with 3,980 pounds per square inch (psi) of flowing wellhead pressure. It was drilled to a total depth of 14,445 feet and perforated between 13,750 feet and 13,905 feet in a Jurassic fault block separate and down-dip from the Qasr Jurassic field and overlain by a four-way dip closure at the Cretaceous Alam el Bueib (AEB) 3D formation.

The Syrah 1X logged 266 feet of net pay from Cretaceous to Jurassic horizons between 11,400 feet and 13,918 feet. The thickest pay -- 174 feet between 13,744 feet and 13,918 feet -- is in the Lower Safa and is stratigraphically similar to the Qasr field. Syrah 1X also logged 32 feet of net pay in the Jurassic Upper Safa and 60 feet of potential oil pay in AEB sands.

Pressure analysis indicates that the AEB 3E pay may be in communication with the Qasr and Ozoris fields approximately three miles to the south. The Syrah well's structural/stratigraphic trap in the Jurassic Lower Safa encompasses a 606-foot hydrocarbon column over a potential area of more than 4,000 acres.

"The Syrah 1X Jurassic discovery is a separate closure 3.3 miles northwest of Qasr field which, with estimated reserves of 2 trillion cubic feet of gas and 45 million barrels of condensate, is the largest discovery in Apache's history," said Rodney J. Eichler, Apache's executive vice president in charge of Egyptian operations. "Delineation of the structure will take additional wells, but seismically, the Syrah field is potentially at least one-quarter the size of Qasr. That would rank the new-field discovery the third-largest Jurassic gas field found to date in the Western Desert."

Apache plans to produce Syrah's gas through its new Qasr field production facility starting this summer, adding to the company's present Western Desert gross production of 300 MMcf of gas per day. Apache has contracts that will more than double its Western Desert production to 637 MMcf of gas per day as additional processing capacity comes on line over the next several years. The rig that drilled the discovery has moved approximately 0.2 of a mile southwest to drill the Syrah 2, targeting oil pays in the AEB.

On Apache's onshore West Mediterranean Concession, the Tanzanite 1X discovery was tested on a 1-inch choke with 814 psi of flowing wellhead pressure from 13 feet of perforations in the AEB 3A sandstone. The well logged a combined 207 feet of net pay from several Cretaceous horizons between 8,670 feet and 11,560 feet.

The Tanzanite 1X was drilled to a total depth of 12,440 feet to test a seismically defined four-way dip closure 1.7 miles southeast of the North Alamein field and production facilities.

The well will be connected to the North Alamein processing facilities. Production will commence upon approval of a development lease by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation. Apache has a 65 percent contractor interest in the concession and RWE Dea AG has the remaining 35 percent.

The Tanzanite 2 appraisal well will be drilled to test the Alamein Dolomite at a location 0.4 of a mile northeast of the Tanzanite 1X surface location. The well also will be designed to test and produce the overlying Kharita and Dahab reservoirs at this structurally up-dip location.