Eni has made a gas discovery in the Nour North Sinai Concession in the Egyptian waters of the Mediterranean Sea following the drilling of a wildcat well at the Nour prospect.
Image: Eni makes new gas discovery offshore Egypt. Photo: courtesy of D Thory/Pixabay.
According to Eni, the exploratory well, called Nour-1 New Field Wildcat (NFW), was drilled to a depth of up to 5,914m at which it encountered 33m of gross sandstone pay having good petrophysical properties.
The estimated gas column is 90m in the Tineh formation of Oligocene age, said the Italian oil and gas giant.
The wildcat well was drilled in a water depth of 295m using the Scarabeo-9 semi-sub rig.
Eni said that although it is yet to test the well, it has carried out an intense and accurate data acquisition.
The company is the operator of the Nour North Sinai Concession with a stake of 40% held through its subsidiary Ieoc. Its partners in the offshore Egyptian block include BP (25%), Mubadala Petroleum (20%) stake and Tharwa Petroleum with a 15% stake of the contractor’s share.
Eni, in a statement said: “The JV Operator will start the feasibility studies to accelerate the exploitation of these new resources leveraging the synergies with existing facilities and infrastructures, after finalizing the discovery evaluation.”
The Nour North Sinai Concession is contained in the East Nile Delta Basin. Its exploration rights were awarded to the Italian oil and gas firm in August 2018.
The concession is in participation with Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS).
Last December, the Egyptian government approved Eni’s sale of 45% stake in the block to Mubadala Petroleum and BP.
Spread over an area of 739 km2, the Egyptian offshore block is contained in water depth ranging from 50-400m.
Apart from the Nour North Sinai Concession, Eni is also the operator of the Shorouk block located in the Mediterranean Sea, which contains the supergiant Zohr gas field.
Earlier this week, the Italian company reported a new oil discovery in offshore Angola’s Block 15/06 through the drilling of the Agogo-1 NFW well at the Agogo exploration prospect. The Agogo discovery is estimated to contain 450-650 barrels of light oil in place with further upside.Pi