European majors Eni, BP, and Total have successfully tested a new natural gas discovery in Egypt’s shallow waters, the Italian company said on Tuesday, commenting on its find that adds to Egypt’s already sizeable natural gas resources.
Once in production, the well Bashrush is estimated to deliver at up to 100 MMscf of gas and 800 barrels of condensate per day, Eni said.
Eni is the operator of the North El Hammad concession, where Bashrush is located, with a 37.5-percent interest, BP holds another 37.5 percent, and Total owns 25 percent.
The companies will be looking to develop the area with tie-ins to existing infrastructure.
“These results support our strategy to allocate a significant share of our exploration budget to the search of hydrocarbons in the vicinity of existing infrastructures,” said Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President Exploration at Total.
“These resources have low development costs since they can rapidly be tie-in and put into production,” McLachlan added.
In recent years, Egypt has been at the center of a ‘natural gas rush’ in the Eastern Mediterranean after Eni discovered the vast Zohr field in 2015, saying it was the largest ever gas discovery in the Mediterranean.
Eni is the operator of Zohr and holds 50 percent, Rosneft has 30 percent, while BP and Mubadala Petroleum each have 10 percent in the Shorouk Block where Zohr is located.
Following the start-up of the giant Zohr field in early 2018, Egypt became an essential player in the Mediterranean. Zohr plays a crucial role in helping Egypt to avoid the need to import liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to the Italian energy major.
In one of the latest deals concerning the Eastern Mediterranean, U.S. supermajor Chevron will scoop up Noble Energy’s natural gas assets offshore Israel and Cyprus after it entered last week into a definitive agreement to buy Houston-based Noble Energy in an all-stock transaction valued at US$5 billion.
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By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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Egypt’s gas riches as manifested by the discoveries of giant gasfields such as Zohr, the largest discovered field in the Eastern Mediterranean, have made it a focus of attention from oil majors like BP, ENI and Total which are enjoying a welcoming investment environment.
Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
International Oil Economist
Visiting Professor of Energy Economics at ESCP Europe Business School, London