Eni and BP have made a new gas find in the Great Nooros area, in the Abu Madi West lease offshore Egypt.
The company drilled the Nidoco NW-1 exploration well in 16 metres of water, 5 km from the coast in the Nile Delta. The well is 4 km from the Nooros field, which was discovered in mid-2015 and rapidly brought into production.
Eni found 100 metres of gas-bearing sands at the Nidoco NW-1 well. It found 50 metres in the Pliocene sands of the Kafr-El-Sheik formation and another 50 metres in the Messinian-age sandstone of the Abu Madi formations.
The latter was particularly interesting as Abu Madi formations have not previously been found in the field. Eni said this suggested further gas potential to the north of the field.
The find takes Great Nooros’ gas in place figure to 4 trillion cubic feet (113.3 billion cubic metres).
Eni said it would begin working on development options for the new find. Connections to existing infrastructure should allow work to progress.
The Italian company has a 75% stake in Abu Madi West, via its IEOC subsidiary. BP holds the remaining 25%. IEOC is the operator via the Petrobel joint venture with Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. (EGPC).
IEOC produces around 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in Egypt. Eni’s output from the North African state has risen as a result of the Great Nooros area and the major Zohr gas field. In 2015, IEOC was producing 200,000 boepd.