Oil and gas company Energean has made a commercial gas discovery offshore Israel using Stena Drilling's Stena IceMAX drillship.
The company said Monday that the discovery was made at the Athena exploration well, Block 12, in the A, B and C sands.
" Preliminary analysis indicates that the Athena discovery contains recoverable gas volumes of 8 bcm (283 bcf / (51 mmboe) on a standalone basis," the company said.
According to Energean, the discovery is particularly significant as it de-risks an additional 50 bcm (1.8 tcf / (321 mmboe) of mean unrisked prospective resources across Energean’s Olympus Area (total 58 bcm / 372 mmboe including Athena).
The Olympus Area is Energean’s newly defined area which includes Athena, plus the undrilled prospects on Block 12 and the adjacent Tanin Lease.
"Athena can be commercialized in the near-term via tie-back to the Energean Power FPSO, enhancing the profitability of the Karish-Tanin development. Alternatively, it could form part of a new Olympus Area development," Energean said. To remind, Energean said last week that the Energean Power FPSO was en route to Israel, having set off from Singapore.
The company said it was actively pursuing development options for the commercialization of the wider Olympus Area, potentially including Athena, through further domestic gas sales, as well s export options, supplying gas to Egypt and European markets.
Energean, which is working to develop it Karish offshore lease in Israel, with first gas set to start flowing later this year, said that, the economics of gas produced and sold from Block 12 are not subject to royalties payable to the original sellers of the Karish and Tanin leases, leading to an approximate 8% increase in revenue for the same volumes sold, when compared with the Karish and Tanin discoveries
Mathios Rigas, Chief Executive of Energean, commented: "We are delighted to announce this new gas discovery at Athena and the potential of the wider Olympus Area. We are considering a range of strategic commercialization options both for a standalone and wider Olympus Area development, including domestic and multiple export routes."
“This discovery and the broader de-risking of a number of prospects in the Olympus Area reaffirms the role of the East Mediterranean as a global gas exploration hotspot. It strengthens our commitment to provide competition and security of supply to the region, enables the optimization of our Israel portfolio and fulfills one of our key milestones for 2022.”
The Stena IceMAX drillship has now moved to the Karish Main-04 appraisal well, of which the top hole has already been drilled. The rig will then complete the Karish North development well. A decision on whether to drill the previously communicated optional wells (Hermes and/or Hercules) is expected to be made by the end of Q2 2022.