BP has achieved first gas from two fields - Taurus and Libra - in the West Nile Delta (WND), offshore Egypt, eight months ahead of schedule.
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Image of West Nile Delta, from BP. |
“The project was delivered eight months ahead of start-up schedule and under budget. First gas was exported to Egypt’s national grid on 24 March 2017 and the commissioning of all nine wells of the development’s first two fields and ramp up to stable operations has now been completed,” BP says.
WND consists of five gas fields across the North Alexandria and West Mediterranean deepwater offshore concession blocks. Plans for the project are to develop them as two separate projects to enable to accelerate gas production to Egypt for BP and its partners.
When fully onstream in 2019, combined production from both projects is expected to reach up to almost 1.5 Bcf/d, equivalent to about 30% of Egypt’s current gas production. All the gas produced will be fed into the national gas grid, according to BP.
Original plans consisted of Taurus and Libra to deliver an annual average of more than 600 MMcf/d to the Egyptian national gas grid. BP says that the fields are currently producing more than 700 MMscf/d sales gas and 1000 b/d condensate, which is 20% higher than the planned sales gas plateau.
The Taurus and Libra project is a subsea greenfield development including nine wells (six in Taurus and three in Libra) and a 42km tieback to the existing onshore processing facility where gas enters the Egyptian national gas grid via a nearby export pipeline.
The second West Nile Delta project, involving development of the Giza, Fayoum and Raven fields, is currently ahead of schedule and below budget, BP says. The project will involve 12 wells and two deepwater long distance subsea tiebacks to the shore. Fluids will be processed through an onshore plant modified for Giza and Fayoum and integrated with a new adjacent onshore plant for Raven. Production from these fields is expected to start in 2019.
BP expects WND to account for some 25% of its new production by 2020.
“West Nile Delta is a strategic national project that will add significant gas production to the Egyptian market and is another example of BP’s commitment to Egypt. Our continuing investments in the country, including West Nile Delta, Atoll and our recent investment in Zohr, are laying the foundations for growth for BP in Egypt well into the future,” says Bob Dudley, BP group chief executive.
WND marks the second of seven major upstream projects that BP expects to come into production during 2017.
“Together with the projects that began production in 2016, these new start-ups are expected to provide BP with 500,000 boe/d of new production capacity by the end of this year,” says BP. “With further new projects starting up beyond this, by the end of the decade BP’s new projects are expected to have added 800,000 boe/d of new production.”
BP is steadily working to bring developments online sooner and under budget. OE's Audrey Leon profiled the Thunder Horse South Expansion project in the May 2017 issue, which BP brought online 11 months ahead of schedule and under budget at the end of 2016.
BP operates WND with 82.75%. Partner DEA Deutsche Erdoel holds the remaining 17.25% interest.
Read more of our past West Nile Delta coverage here.
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