British oil and gas giant BP has discovered another gas reserve in Egypt’s Nile Delta, marking its third in the North Damietta Offshore Concession.
The gas reserve, which is located in the East Nile Delta, was found through the drilling of the Qattameya Shallow-1 exploration well. BP has 100% stake in the gas discovery which is 60kms away from Damietta city, 30kms from Salamat and 35kms from the offshore facilities in Ha’py.
BP could confirm the availability of 37m of net gas pay in high quality Pliocene sandstones based on the pressure data, wireline logs and fluid samples.
BP North Africa regional president Hesham Mekawi said: “We are delighted to sustain our success in these shallow Pliocene targets. We believe development of Qattameya could help unlock the resources in other nearby discoveries with similar shallow low pressure characteristics.
“This is part of our long-standing commitment to Egypt and to unlocking Egypt’s energy potential.”
BP is now exploring options on how and where it can possibly associate the discovery to surrounding infrastructure.
The gas discovery was made after drilling the exploration well to a net depth of 1,961m in water depth of nearly 108m by deploying the El Qaher II jack-up rig.
It is the third gas discovery to have been made in the same block where the company is developing the Atoll field besides appraising the Salamat discovery. According to BP Group CEO Bob Dudley, the new discovery confirms the company’s belief of the Nile Deta to be a world-class basin.
While the Atoll gas field was discovered by BP in March 2015, the Salamat discovery was made in September 2013.