Houston-headquartered Apex International Energy said Jan. 18 it has struck oil in the Western Desert of Egypt’s 2,534-sq-km Southeast Meleiha Concession, marking the second discovery of a three-well program underway.

Located 10 km west of the Zarif Field, the SEMZ-11X well hit 65 ft of oil pay in the Cretaceous sandstones of the Bahariya and Abu Roash G formations, the company said in a news release.

“Testing of the Bahariya resulted in a peak rate of 2,100 barrels of oil per day with no water,” the company said. “Additional uphole pay exists in the Bahariya and Abu Roash G formations that can be added to the production stream in the future.”

SEMZ-11X was drilled to a total depth of 5,700 ft, the same depth as the first well of the drilling program. Apex said the SEMZ-1X well, drilled in December about 23 km west of Zarif—also found Bahariya oil with 17 ft of indicated pay. Future plans include fracture stimulating SEMZ-1X to increase production.

“These oil discoveries are an important step in our company’s development and in validating our strategy to grow an oil and gas company of substance through a combination of drilling and acquisitions,” Apex’s founder and CEO Roger Plank said in the release. “The presence of hydrocarbons in both the 1X and 11X confirms our geologic model and significantly enhances the prospectivity of a number of other mapped prospects and leads across our 2,534 square kilometers.”

Apex said it plans to move east of the Zarif Field with its third well, SEMZ-3X, when drilling begins later in January. 

Onshore