The analytical report issued by Egypt Oil & Gas to assess the performance of Khalda Petroleum revealed disparities in the company’s production indicators of crude oil and natural gas. Oil production witnessed several fluctuations in the last six months of 2011, while the production of natural gas rose consistently during the same period.

Khalda drilled three wells in its Western Desert concession towards the end of 2011, two of which are exploratory wells producing both oil and gas, while the third is a developmental well.

The company has successfully drilled SHU-1X, which is an exploratory oil-producing well, in the company’s concession area in the Western Desert. The well was drilled to a depth of 16,000 feet using the EDC-41 rig, the cost of which has averaged $6.7 million.

The report also documented Khalda’s drilling of PRINCE-1, which is an exploratory gas-producing well located within the same concession area in the Western Desert. The well, which was drilled at a depth of 15.76 cubic feet using the EDC-57 rig, produces 150 cubic feet of gas in addition to 200 barrels of gas condensate per day. The well was put on stream last October with drilling investments averaging $5.24 million.

In efforts to boost its daily output, the company also undertook the drilling of the KHALDA-86, which is also located in its Western Desert concession. Using the EDC-56 rig, the well was drilled to a vertical depth of 6800 feet, with investments worth $1.38 million.

Khalda also introduced five new developmental wells to its monthly production cycle. The new wells, dubbed TUT-93, GAD-17, SOAG-2, W.Kalabsha1-5, and Abu al-Ghradeeq-99, are situated in the company’s Western Desert concession. Production rates of these wells have reached 5,370 barrels of oil per day.

In December of last year, the company completed spudding another four exploratory wells: UNAS-1X, N.RZK-75X, AG-93, and NYMATAW-1X, in addition to the developmental well WRZK-68. The exploratory wells were operated using the ST-6, EDC-41, EDC-50, and EDC-61 rigs respectively, while the developmental well was drilled using the EDC-65 rig to a vertical depth of 6822 feet.

Investments for operating the four exploratory wells have reached approximately $11 million, while the cost of drilling the developmental well reached $800,000.

Khalda’s overall production has reached 448,017 barrels of oil and 4543,929 cubic feet of gas during December of 2011.

Khalda Petroleum is a joint venture company between the American operator Apache and the EGPC.