Italian Eni announces new gas discovery in Egypt’s Nile Delta

CAIRO – 1 July 2020: Italian oil and gas company Eni said it managed to drill the first exploration well in waters of Egypt’s Nile Delta, in cooperation with contractor members of BP and Total.

In a statement, Eni said the newly discovered prospect “Bashrush”, located 22 meters deep, will be tested for production. It is located in the North El Hammad, 12 kilometers away from the Nooros field and around 1 kilometers away from Baltim South West field.

According to the company, which holds 37.5 percent interest of the North El Hammad concession, it could discover a gas column with a thickness of 152 meters within the Messinian age sandstones of the Abu Madi formation with “excellent petrophysical properties.”

“The discovery of Bashrush is further demonstration of the effectiveness of Eni's ‘incremental’ exploration strategy, aimed at selecting high value opportunities and ensuring fast development of the new discoveries through existing infrastructures,” the company said in a statement.

The three companies of Eni, BP and Total will start testing the development options of Bashrush, in coordination with the petroleum sector of the Egyptian side, in order to “fast track” production, the statement added.

In October last year, Eni announced the discovery of new resources in Abu Rudeis Sidri development lease, in the Gulf of Suez, with estimations to contain about 200 million barrels of oil in place.

The company added that the well will have an expected initial flow rate of about 5,000 barrels per day.

The discovery was made where the operating company Petrobel, equally held by Eni and by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), drilled an appraisal well of the discovery of Sidri South, announced in July.

“This new and important result continues the positive track record of the "near field" exploration in Eni's historical concessions in Egypt and prove how the use of new play concepts and of the technology allows to re-evaluate areas where exploration was considered having reached a high level of maturity," Eni commented.

According to Eni, Petrobel immediately conceived a rapid development plan for the new discovery with a "fast-track" approach, leveraging on existing infrastructures in the vicinity of the well and maximizing facilities synergies.

It added that this strategy will be applied also in future activities in the Sidri area with the next delineation and development wells connected to the production in a short time.