Dual-listed oil and gas company SacOil’s Mena International Petroleum subsidiary reached its Phase 2 production target of 1 000 bbl/d in February at its wholly owned Lagia onshore oilfield in Sinai, Egypt.

The first-phase production target of 400 bbl/d was reached in February last year.

SacOil CEO Thabo Kgogo tells Engineering News that meeting the production target has reaffirmed SacOil’s “strategy of focusing on cash-generating assets”.

He explains that the $14-million acquisition of Mena International Petroleum in October 2014 formed part of SacOil’s strategy to move towards upstream production assets.

Meanwhile, Engineering News reported in November 2015 that the subsidiary had started drilling at the Lagia 11 well at the Lagia oilfield, which formed part of the Phase 2 field development operations.

The well was part of a five-well drilling campaign to increase and improve oil production.

The Lagia wells were drilled using the contracted Petro PDSO land rig, Shams 1. The five wells – Lagia 11, 12, 13, 15 and 16 – targeted the main producing reservoir, the Nukhul formation, at about 900 ft below mean sea level.

Phase 2 field development also included the installation and commissioning of steam faci- lities for a thermal recovery process at the production wells.

The five production wells were successfully steamed, with the formation reacting positively by accepting the injected steam as expected. The thermal recovery process yielded positive results, with an increase in production rates after the first steam and soak cycle using progressive cavity pumps.

Following the successful steaming, the five wells were allowed to soak for a number of days to heat the reservoir and reduce the oil visco- sity before starting production.
The steaming and thermal recovery of all the wells allowed the oilfield to achieve the 1 000 bbl/d production target.

In addition, Lagia 15 was specifically deepened to investigate the reservoir and hydrocarbon potential of the underlying Thebes formation. Lagia 15 was drilled to a total depth of 1 820 ft and intersected the Nukhul formation as well as the Thebes formation. Although the Nukhul formation at this well location was not well developed, the compliant discovered “producible” oil in the Thebes formation.

Postdrilling evaluation and analysis indicate that the discovery in the Thebes formation is of a higher API gravity at 24° API, compared with the oil produced from the Nukhul formation in this field. The reserves and resources attri- butable to the Thebes formation will be included in the evaluation and analysis and the asso- ciated field competent person’s report updated accordingly.

The company also successfully procured and installed ten new thermal wellheads and tubing sucker rod pumps, which were customised specifically for the Lagia field conditions and replaced the progressive cavity pumps.