BP announced first gas production from the second phase of its West Nile Delta development project offshore Egypt on Monday.
The project, which produces gas from the Giza and Fayoum fields, was developed as a deepwater, long-distance tie-back to an existing onshore plant. It includes a total of five gas fields across the North Alexandria and West Mediterranean Deepwater offshore concession blocks.
“This important project start-up benefitted from the excellent working relationship between BP and the Egyptian government. With the second stage of West Nile Delta now online, BP has now safely brought 21 new upstream major projects into production over the last three years, keeping us on track to deliver 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2021,” said Bob Dudley, BP chief executive.
The first phase of the project, which started in 2017, included gas production from the first two fields, Taurus and Libra.
The Giza and Fayoum development, which includes eight wells, is currently producing around 400m cubic feet of gas per day (scf/day) and is expected to ramp up to a maximum rate of approximately 700 scf/day.
The third phase of the West Nile Delta project will develop the Raven field, with expected production in late 2019.
Furthermore, Hesham Mekawi, regional president of BP North Africa, said that BP is proud to have worked with the Egyptian government to deliver this multi-phase, complex project, which plays an important role in both Egypt’s gas supply and BP’s strategy. He added that production from Giza and Fayoum gas fields will sustain local energy supply and keep the company on track to triple our net production from Egypt by 2020.
According to the company’s statement, after completion in 2019, the combined production from all three phases of the West Nile Delta project is expected to reach up to almost 1.4bn scf/day, equivalent to about 20% of Egypt’s current gas production. All the gas produced will be added to the national gas grid.
