Britain’s SDX in ‘Advanced Planning’ to Drill 12 Morocco Wells

A general view shows the Samir oil refinery in Mohamadia, Morocco, April 28, 2018. Image for illustrative purposes. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal
A general view shows the Samir oil refinery in Mohamadia, Morocco, April 28, 2018. Image for illustrative purposes. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal
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Britain’s SDX in ‘Advanced Planning’ to Drill 12 Morocco Wells

A general view shows the Samir oil refinery in Mohamadia, Morocco, April 28, 2018. Image for illustrative purposes. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal
A general view shows the Samir oil refinery in Mohamadia, Morocco, April 28, 2018. Image for illustrative purposes. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal

Planning for the drilling of 12 wells in Morocco is at an “advanced stage,” with the campaign targeted to begin in the fourth quarter of 2019 and complete in the first half of 2020, Britain’s SDX Energy PLC, a North Africa-focused oil and gas company, has announced.

All long lead items have been ordered and all key contracts finalized, SDX announced in a statement. The program will be targeting 15bcf of gross unrisked prospective resources at the Gharb Basin, north of Rabat, it said.

According to the company, its Morocco gas sales are now at an average of 745 boe/d.

The company's Moroccan acreage consists of five concessions, all of which are located in the Gharb Basin in northern Morocco: Sebou, Lalla Mimouna Nord, Gharb Centre, Lalla Mimouna Sud, and Moulay Bouchta Ouest, with the latter two secured by the firm during the first half of 2019.

In 2018, the company began selling natural gas to Peugeot, Extralait, and GPC Kenitra. During the first half of 2019, natural gas sales began to three additional customers: Setexam, Citic Dicastal and Omnium Plastic.

The six new customers have been increasing their consumption rates, with several expected to reach stabilized rates during the second half of the year, the statement added.



Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
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Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he will nominate prominent investor Scott Bessent as US Treasury secretary, a key cabinet position with vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs.

"I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States," Trump said in a statement released on Truth Social. "Scott is widely respected as one of the world's foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists."

Wall Street has been closely watching who Trump will pick, especially given his plans to remake global trade through tariffs and extend and potentially expand the raft of tax cuts enacted during his first term, Reuters reported
The choice came after days of deliberations by Trump as he sorted through a shifting list of candidates. Bessent spent day after day at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida providing economic advice, sources said, a proximity to the president-elect that may have helped him prevail.
Other names that had been floated included Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh. Investor John Paulson had also been a leading candidate, but dropped out, while Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick, another contender, was appointed as head of the Commerce Department.
Bessent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.
The market's surge after Trump's election victory, he wrote, signaled investor expectations of "higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans."
"Bessent has been on the side of less aggressive tariffs," said Oxford Economics' Ryan Sweet, adding that picking him makes the steep tariffs Trump proposed on the campaign trail less likely.
Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump's first Treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, Bessent's home state, said in a statement: "President Trump's economic agenda is in good hands with Scott Bessent. I look forward to working closely with Scott and President Trump to lower inflation and create the golden age of prosperity for the American people."