Khalda Petroleum Company, a joint venture (JV) between Apache and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), has improved its drilling performance by completing three consecutive wells within one month using a single rig, achieving a 17.7% reduction in costs, equivalent to $735,000, the company said on 14 October.

The wells included KAH-B-54, completed in 7.5 days from spudding to handover, making it Khalda’s fastest well to date, and KAH-B-53, completed in 8.9 days, which the company said was its third-fastest.

Khalda also reduced drill pipe connection time by 25.3% to 7.5 minutes.

The company attributed the improved performance to reduced non-productive time, better equipment utilisation and changes to drilling practices.

The latest drilling results follow earlier efforts by Khalda to boost production through new discoveries and improve operational efficiency.

In February, Khalda announced two gas discoveries in Egypt with estimated  21.15 million cubic feet per day (mcf/d) of gas and 3,274 barrels per day (bbl/d) of condensates, while the West Dabaa-2X well in the West Dabaa concession recorded 4.15 mcf/d of gas and 336 bbl/d of condensates.