Eni finds more gas offshore Egypt

Italian energy firm Eni has made a new gas discovery in the Nile delta in Egypt, further increasing the country's export potential.

The new reservoir — discovered through the Nidoko NW-1 exploratory well — is 4km north of the Nooros field, which came on stream in 2016 and achieved plateau production in 2018. The preliminary assessment of the new reservoir suggests that the Great Nooros area, where the field is located, can now be estimated to hold reserves "in excess of 4 trillion ft³" (113.2bn m³) with the addition of recent discoveries, the company said. The Great Nooros area was previously estimated to hold 3 trillion ft³ (84.9bn m³), suggesting that combined reserves from the recently found fields are at least 1 trillion ft³ (28.3bn m³).

Eni holds a 75pc stake in the Abu Madi West area, which is part of the Great Nooros area, with BP holding the remaining 25pc. The block is operated by Petrobel, a joint venture between Eni and Egyptian state-owned firm EGPC.

In July, Eni announced the discovery of another reservoir — Bashrush — in the North El Hammad licence, which borders the Great Nooros area. Eni holds a 37.5pc share in the North El Hammad area, with BP holding an equal stake and Total holding the remaining 25pc. The firm did not provide figures on estimated reserves.

Egyptian production hit a record high of 204mn m³/d at the end of December, but has been falling throughout 2020 as the country adjusted upstream output to lower domestic and export demand, as well as the start of pipeline imports from Israel. Aggregate production averaged 161mn m³/d in January-June, down from 185mn m³/d a year earlier, data from the Joint Organisation Data Initiative show. Egypt has exported five LNG cargoes so far this year, down from 35 in January-August 2019, shiptracking data show.

But some smaller fields continued to ramp up production in recent months. Output from the BP-operated Atoll field rose to 320mn ft³/d (9.06mn m³/d) from 250mn ft³/d (7.08mn m³/d) from July 2019-June 2020, the country's oil ministry said. And production from the West Delta Deep Marine (9b) field, which started in late 2019, had reached 309mn ft³/d (8.74mn m³/d) by the end of June, up from 100mn ft³/d (2.83mn m³/d) at the end of 2019. The field has a production capacity of 350mn ft³/d (9.91mn m³/d).

By Antonio Peciccia