Eni: Egypt's Greater Nooros Now 3 Trillion ft³

Eni said September 22 it had upgraded the field potential of Baltim South West, offshore Egypt's Nile Delta, to one trillion ft³ of gas in place.

This follows the results of appraisal well Baltim South West 2X, drilled immediately after the successful drilling of discovery well Baltim South West 1X.

Baltim South West field, located in 25 metres of water depth 12km from the coastline and just 10 km from the Nooros field, was discovered in July 2015 and is already in production. The Baltim South West 2X well encountered a gas column of 102 metres overall, of which 86 metres net, in two sand layers with excellent reservoirs.

With the new well, the gas potential of its so-called Great Nooros Area now reaches 3 trillion ft³ of gas in place, of which about 2 trillion are in the Nooros field while the remainder is the new independent discovery of Baltim South West. Eni and its 50-50 partner BP are already working on the development options for this new discovery, for which the operator is Petrobel, a joint venture of Eni's IEOC and Egyptian state-owned EGPC.

Eni drilling in the Nooros field earlier this summer (Photo credit: Eni)

As for Nooros, the aim is to maximise synergies with existing infrastructures of the area, said Eni, in accordance with the “near field” exploration strategy adopted by Eni to leverage on high value opportunities that can grant a quick development of new discoveries. Eni said gross Nooros gas production reached 700mn ft³/d on September 12, three months ahead of schedule and just a year after the field started production.

Eni said its current equity production in Egypt is about 205,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The company meanwhile still expects to produce first gas from its giant 30 trillion ft^³ Zohr field, also offshore Egypt's Nile Delta, in late 2017.

On September 19, Eni announced it had resumed exploration onshore Tunisia and completed drilling discovery well Laarich East-1 in the MLD (Makhrouga-Laarich-Debbech) licence 700km south of Tunis. Eni and Tunisian state producer ETAP are 50-50 partners. Drilling began in June. The well has been connected to existing production. It did not say how much it is producing, but said Eni's current net equity Tunisia production is 11,000 boe/d.

Mark Smedley