Cairo – Mubasher: BP Egypt and Eni announced a new significant gas discovery in the Baltim South West 1X well in the conventional waters of Egypt's Nile Delta, according to a press release.
The Baltim South West discovery (Baltim SW-1) is located 12 kilometres from the coast, 25 metres deep in the water, and 10 kilometres from the Nooros field. It penetrated 120 metres of gross gas column approximately and 62 metres of net pay sandstones from the Messinian age.
Hesham Mekawi, regional president of BP North Africa, commented that "more efforts will be required to determine the potentialities of this new discovery", confirming that a significant upside in the "Great Nooros Area" is currently underway following this new discovery as the area is estimated to hold around 70-80 billion cubic meters of gas.
It is noteworthy that Nooros field, discovered in July 2015, currently produces 65,000 barrels of oil per day.
"Our plan is to utilise existing infrastructure which will accelerate the development of the discovery, and expedite early production start-up. This announcement is another example of BP’s commitment to unlock resources in order to bring critical gas production to Egypt," Mekawi said.
Eni, through its subsidiary IEOC, holds a 50% stake in the license of Baltim South, while BP holds the remaining 50% stake, the release indicated. Moreover, the operator is Petrobel, an equal joint venture between IEOC and the state company Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC).
