Eni Hits Gas In Offshore Egypt


Italian Supermajor Makes Discovery

Oil and gas firm Eni said it has made a new offshore gas discovery in Egypt, with the potential to drive significant breakbulk demand as the firm sets its sights on upstream growth.
 
The discovery under evaluation is in the Nour exploration prospect in the eastern Egyptian Mediterranean. Drilling by Eni’s Scarabeo-9 semi-sub at the Nour-1 New Field Wildcat, led to the find in a water depth of 295 meters.
 
“Nour-1 well found 33 meters of gross sandstone pay with good petrophysical properties and an estimated gas column of 90 meters in the Tineh formation of Oligocene age,” a spokesperson for Eni said.


Data Acquisition Complete

Reaching a total drill depth of 5,914 meters, the Nour-1 well is part of a joint venture concession, in participation with Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co., or EGAS.
 
Eni has since carried out “intense and accurate data acquisition,” and is starting feasibility studies “to accelerate the exploitation” of the field.

Eni operates the field with a 40-percent stake, while BP and Mubadala Petroleum hold 20-percent stakes, and Tharwa Petroleum Co. a 15-percent stake of the contractor’s share.


Sights Set on Upstream Growth

Eni reaffirmed a commitment to upstream growth this week as it targets 2.5 billion barrel of oil equivalent of new resources from its exploration activities.
 
“We will continue to grow organically in upstream. Thanks to the large amount of new acreage in high potential basins, we target 2.5 billion barrels of new resources by drilling 140 exploration wells in the plan period. Production is expected to grow by 3.5 percent per year over the plan and beyond thanks to the ramp-up and startup of new projects and the large inventory of future FIDs based on 3 billion barrels of reserves,” said Claudio Descalzi, Eni CEO.

Headquartered in Rome, Italy, Eni has operations in 79 countries, and is the world's 11th largest industrial company with stakes in major offshore projects.
 
Photo: Oil rig. Credit: Wikimedia
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