Candax Energy Announces El Bibane Production Start Up

Candax Energy announced the commencement of production from the El Bibane Field offshore Tunisia. During the week of March 3rd the EBB-5 well was tested and flowed gas and condensate to the onshore Central Processing Facility (CPF) to clean up the well and enable the onshore plant commissioning to be initiated.

The EBB-4 well successfully commenced oil production during the week of March 16th. Oil production rates have been variable due to onshore plant commissioning and weather related delays to the offshore tie-in activities, both of which have necessitated several shut-downs. The peak daily production rate thus far is approximately 1,400 bpd of oil and Candax expects oil production levels to rise considerably over the coming weeks as production from EBB-4 is optimized and the EBB-3 well is tied in and brought on stream. Candax plans to release further production updates once these operations have been completed.

The final well in the El Bibane re-development project, EBB-3, was completed on March 18th and the "West Titania" rig move has been initiated for demobilisation to Malta. The installation of the EBB-3 platform and pipeline hook-ups with the other wells is ongoing. The SEEB power station is also being commissioned and will be ready to commence power generation operations once gas production has been stabilized in April.

Michael Wood, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: "We are pleased to have completed the three well drilling program at El Bibane and are encouraged by the initial oil production rates from the EBB-4 well. We are focusing our efforts on completing the EBB-3 platform installation, pipeline hookups and commissioning to optimize the oil production capability of the field in the coming weeks."