SDX Energy is withdrawing from the Bakassi West project, offshore Cameroon as it concentrates on its core assets.
The company held a 35% working interest in the concession, which was operated by Dana Petroleum.
The partners had asked the Cameroon authorities for an extension to the current exploration phase, to allow further analysis following the Manatee-1 well.
The authorities denied a Dana requested for a one-year extension to complete analysis of the results of the well, which intersected 26 metres of gas bearing section of varying quality throughout the wellbore.
Authorities did not grant the request and instead asked the venture to enter into the second exploration period, which required an additional well commitment; SDX declined to continue to move forward with this project.
Analysis of the well’s lower intervals was inclusive, SDX noted.
The Bakassi West concession was acquired by SDX in October 2015 as a result of a merger between Sea Dragon Energy and Madison PetroGas.
Chief executive Paul Welch, said: “The Bakassi West concession is not a core asset to our business and we do not believe it would have been prudent to continue investing in it.”
“Whilst the concession was an exciting opportunity, it was fundamentally non-core, and our subsequent exit allows the company to focus all of our efforts on growing our high margin production business in our core assets across Egypt.
“We are continuing to move forward as planned with our operations in Egypt and I look forward to reporting on our progress in subsequent updates.”