Cameroon : SDX abandons Bakassi West to focus efforts on Egypt

SDX Energy Inc, international oil and gas company, says it withdraws from Bakassi West concession in Cameroon to rather focus efforts on high margin production business in its Egypt portfolio that includes South Ramadan development asset in the Gulf of Suez and South Disouq exploration asset in the Nile Delta.

The TSXV and AIM listed company, that holds 35% working interest in the concession, disclosed this on June 16, in an operational update on the Manatee-1X exploration well, located in shallow water in the Rio Del Rey Basin.

“The Bakassi West concession is not a core asset to our business and we do not believe it would have been prudent to continue investing in it”, CEO Paul Welch said.

Welch pointed out that, though Bakassi West concession was an exciting opportunity, it was fundamentally non-core, and the subsequent exit allows SDX to focus all of the efforts on growing the high margin production business in the core assets of the Company across Egypt.

British oil company Dana Petroleum is the operator of the concession. It requested a one-year extension to complete analysis of the results of the well, which intersected 26 metres of gas bearing section of varying quality throughout the wellbore.

According to SDX Energy, wellbore conditions did not allow the acquisition of a full suite of logging tools in the deeper sections of the hole.

This “made the analysis of the lower intervals in the well inconclusive”, the company said and expressed regret that Cameroon authorities did not grant Dana Petroleum’s proposal of a one year extension.

Dana Petroleum was asked, instead, to enter into the second exploration period, which required an additional well commitment leading SDX to decline continuing to move forward with the project.

SDX Energy Inc acquired the Bakassi West concession in October 2015 as a result of a merger between Sea Dragon Energy and Madison PetroGas.