Anglo-Dutch major Shell has completed drilling all nine development wells at its West Delta Deep Marine (WDDM) project as part of Phase 9B, Egypt oil ministry announced on 13 September. Sabry El Sharkawy, Chairman of Rashpetco, Shell’s JV with state oil firm EGPC, says the first three wells will come online in Q4 this year, adding 220mn cfd, with the remaining six wells to add 390mn cfd in Q1 next year.

This implies a quadrupling of WDDM output from the current 200mn cfd. But a MEES source at Malaysian state firm Petronas, which partners Shell at WDDM, says that the first three wells were flops and that total output from the project will be in the range of 300-350mn cfd for 2020. (CONTINUED - 182 WORDS)