BP Makes Gas Discovery in Egypt’s Nile Delta

BP Egypt announced the Salmon gas discovery in the North El Burg Offshore Concession, Nile Delta. Salmon is the third gas discovery BP has made in the concession following Satis-1 and Satis-3 Oligocene deep gas discoveries.

Salmon, drilled by IEOC, the affiliate of ENI in Egypt, on behalf of concession operator BP, is located 50 kilometers to the north of Damietta. The wireline logs and pressure readings confirmed the presence of gas in two shallow Pleistocene intervals. The well was drilled by Scarabeo IV rig in water depths of 87m and reached a total depth of 1600m. Further appraisal work to evaluate the resources is underway.

Hesham Mekawi, President and General Manager of BP Egypt stated “The success of Salmon highlights the great potential of the shallow reservoirs within the Nile Delta, and helps unlock additional resources in surrounding acreage. It demonstrates the ongoing cooperation with the Ministry of Petroleum to deliver new gas discoveries and incremental supply to meet the future growth of the gas business in Egypt.”

The parties to the North El Burg Offshore Concession agreement are: BP (operator 50%) and IEOC (50%).
Notes to Editors:
BP has been in Egypt for almost 50 years, primarily in oil and gas exploration and production. To date, BP Egypt, in collaboration with the Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company (GUPCO), BP’s JV Company with the Egyptian General Petroleum Company (EGPC), has been responsible for the production of almost 40% of Egypt’s entire oil production. In addition, BP Egypt and its partners are currently producing nearly 40% of the domestic gas demand.

Egypt’s offshore Nile Delta is an important part of the company’s upstream portfolio. BP has interests in eleven concessions in the Nile Delta, with operatorship of six.

Operatorship of the North El Burg Offshore Concession was awarded to BP Exploration (Delta) Limited in June 2005. The concession lies in water depths of 60 to 100 meters. The concession lies between the Ras El Barr BP operated development concession and Offshore Baltim development concession operated by IEOC.