Edison spuds exploration well offshore Egypt

Edison Exploration and Production has started drilling the first exploration well in its North Thekah concession located in the Egyptian Eastern Mediterranean waters.

The well was spud on January 18, 2020, using the Maersk Discoverer semi-submersible rig, Edison said.

The company holds a 100 percent working interest in this concession.

The drilling operation is estimated to take two months to reach the reservoir target Ameeq-1X situated at a total depth of 5,200 with 982 meters of water depth, Edison added.

The North Thekah block covers an area of about 3750 km2 in the Eastern Sector of Egypt’s offshore at about 150 km from the shore and in water depths ranging from 400-1400 m. The block is located in the area between the prolific Nile Delta Cone and the Levantine Basin.

The Maersk Discoverer was hired by Edison for operations in Egypt back in July 2019. The contract was expected to start in 4Q 2019 with an additional one-well option.

According to the latest fleet status report from Maersk Drilling, published in November 2019, the rig’s contract with Edison is set to end in March 2020. The dayrate has not been disclosed.

The 2009-built Maersk Discoverer is a DSS-21 column stabilize dynamically positioned semi-submersible drilling rig, able to operate in water depths up to 10,000ft.

It is worth reminding that Energean is in the process of buying Edison E&P through a deal announced in July 2019. Energean plans to sell Edison E&P’s UK and Norwegian subsidiaries to Neptune Energy for $250 million of cash, to be adjusted for working capital, with additional cash contingent consideration of up to $30 million.

The deal between Energean and Edison was initially expected to close by the end of 2019, but the expected completion date was moved to 2020 due to complication, which arose regarding Edison’s assets in Algeria.

Offshore Energy Today Staff

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