BP Egypt has announced another important gas discovery in the North Damietta Offshore Concession in the East Nile Delta. The "Atoll-1" deepwater exploration well, currently being drilled using the 6th generation semi-submersible rig "Maersk Discoverer," has reached 6,400 meters depth and penetrated approximately 50 meters of gas pay in high quality Oligocene sandstones. Expected to be the deepest well ever drilled in Egypt, the Atoll well still has another 1 kilometer to drill to test the same reservoir section found to be gas bearing in BP's significant 2013 Salamat discovery, 15 kilometers to the south.
Maersk Discoverer
Bob Dudley, BP Group Chief Executive, commented: "Success in Atoll further increases our confidence in the quality of the Nile Delta as a world class gas basin. This is the second significant discovery in the license after Salamat. The estimated potential in the concession exceeds 5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) and we now have a positive starting point for the next possible major project in Egypt after BP's West Nile Delta project."
Commenting on the discovery, Hesham Mekawi, BP North Africa Regional President said: "The Atoll discovery is a great outcome for our second well in this core exploration program in the East Nile Delta. It demonstrates BP's continuous efforts to help in meeting Egypt's energy demands by exploring the potential in the offshore Nile Delta. We are proud of our commitment to unlock Egypt's exploration potential that requires large investments to utilize using the latest drilling and seismic technologies."
Atoll-1 was drilled in 923m water depth around 80km north of Damietta city, 15km north of Salamat and only 45 km to the north west of Temsah offshore facilities. BP has 100% equity in the discovery.
BP has a long and successful track record in Egypt stretching back 50 years with investment
exceeding $25 billion, making BP one of the largest foreign investors in the country. In Egypt,
BP's business is primarily in oil and gas exploration and production.
To date, BP Egypt, in collaboration with the Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company (GUPCO),
BP's joint venture (JV) Company with the Egyptian General Petroleum Company (EGPC), has produced almost 40% of Egypt's entire oil production, and currently produces almost 10% of Egypt's annual oil and condensate production.
In addition, through BP's JVs with EGPC/EGAS and IEOC (ENI), the Pharaonic Petroleum Company (PhPC) and Petrobel currently produce close to 30% of Egypt's total gas production.
BP is working to meet Egypt's domestic market growth by actively exploring in the Nile Delta and investing to add production from existing discoveries.
The West Nile Delta (WND) Major Project is a strategic project for BP and its partner and is also critical to Egypt as it will provide more than one billion cubic feet per day (25% of Egypt's current production) of gas.
BP is a 33% shareholder of an NGL plant extracting LPG and propane, United Gas Derivatives Company (UGDC) in partnership with ENI/IEOC and GASCO (the Egyptian midstream gas distribution company).
BP is also present in the downstream sector through Natural Gas Vehicles Company (NGVC, BP 40%) which was established in September 1995 as the first company in Africa and the Middle East to commercialize natural gas as an alternative fuel for vehicles.
