Eni is increasing its presence offshore Egypt, as the company picks up two licenses in the 2015 EGAS bid round.
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Image from Eni Flickr. |
The two exploration licenses, North El Hammad and North Ras El Esh, are in the shallow waters of the Mediterranean Sea, facing the Nile Delta and located southwest of the Temsah area and west of the Baltim area, where the Italian giant operates existing fields and production facilities.
Eni is the operator of the 1389sq km North El Hammad with 37.5% interest. Partners include BP with 37.5%, and Total with 25%.
BP was awarded operatorship of North Ras El Esh, which covers 1927sq km. Both BP and Eni hold 50% interest each.
The licenses will be managed by Eni’s subsidiary IEOC.
Last week, Egypt state gas company EGAS awarded four blocks with a total investment of US$306 million, and a signing bonus of $10.5 million to drill eight wells and conduct 3D seismic surveys. In addition to North El Hammad and North Ras El Esh,Italy’s Edison was awarded block 12, Northeast Hapi, and BP was awarded block 12, North El Tabia.
Eni in Egypt
In August, Eni discovered Egypt’s largest gas field to date, the Zohr field that the company says could hold up to 30 Tcf of lean gas in place, or 5.5 billion boe, over about 100sq km.
The Zohr 1X NFW discovery well, located in the Shorouk Block (Block 9) at 4757ft (1450m) water depth, was drilled to a total depth of about 13,553ft (4131m) and hit 2067ft (630m) of hydrocarbon column in a carbonate sequence of Miocene age with excellent reservoir characteristics. Zohr’s structure has also a deeper Cretaceous upside that will be targeted in the future with a dedicated well, Eni said.
Eni is appraising the Zohr field with the aim of accelerating a fast track development of the discovery that will use at best the existing offshore and onshore infrastructure.
Through IEOC, Eni is operator of the Shorouk Block with 100% interest.
In July, Eni discovered 15 Bcm of gas in place at the Nooros exploration prospect in the Abu Madi West license, in the Nile Delta, 120km northeast of Alexandria.
The Nidoco NW2 Dir NFW well, which sits 120km northeast of Alexandria, reached 3600m total depth and encountered a 60m thick gas bearing sandstone interval of Messianian age with excellent petrophysical properties, further of other gas layers in the overlying Pliocene section.
Eni, through its subsidiary IEOC, holds a 75% of working interest in the West Abu Madi development lease, with BP as a partner with 25%.
Read more:
Egypt awards four offshore blocks
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