North Africa focused oil and gas company SDX Energy Inc announced Monday that a "successful" production test has been conducted at its SD-4X appraisal well at South Disouq in Egypt.

    The well was said to have flowed at a maximum rate of 30.4 million cubic feet per day (MMcfpd) during an eight hour clean up period. Following this, SDX said by varying choke sizes the well was flowed for two successive 12-hour periods at average rates of 5.4 MMcfpd and 8.6 MMcfpd, respectively, and one extended flow period of 24-hours at an average rate of 10.5 MMcfpd.

    The SD-4X well was subsequently shut in for a pressure build-up of 120 hours, which is currently on-going. At completion of the build-up, the downhole pressure gauges will be retrieved and the well suspended prior to being connected to local production facilities. During testing a total of 23.38 MMcf of conventional natural gas was produced.

    "We are very pleased to report another successful production test result, at our SD-4X appraisal well in South Disouq," president and CEO of SDX, Paul Welch, said in a company statement.

    "We intend to connect this well to infrastructure located adjacent to our SD-1X discovery over the coming months. We are targeting a late Q4 2018 start-up of production in South Disouq and this well test result provides us with additional confidence to deliver on our planned plateau rate of 50 MMcfpd of conventional natural gas," Welch added.

    Commenting on SDX’s SD-4X well result, Ashley Kelty and Jack Allardyce, oil and gas research analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe, described it as "very encouraging".

    "This result is very encouraging, with flow rates in excess of those seen at the testing of the SD-1X well (25.8 MMcfpd). We believe this strongly supports the full development of South Disouq and should see the targeted 50 MMcfpd production rate readily achieved," the analysts said in a report sent to Rigzone.

    SDX holds a 55 percent interest in, and operatorship of, the South Disouq license.