British Petroleum (BP) has made a gas discovery as part of the North Damietta Offshore Concession in Egypt's Nile Delta, the third such discovery in two years in same block, the company announced on Sunday. The Qattameya Shallow-1 exploration well was drilled to a depth of 1,961 metres in water depth of around 108 metres, the company said. "This latest discovery confirms our belief that the Nile Delta is a world-class basin," BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley said in a statement. The well is 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Damietta city in northern Egypt. BP, which produces around 40 percent of Egypt's total gas, has 100 percent equity in the discovery. This discovery by BP comes nearly two years after another discovery in the same area estimated to exceed 5 trillion cubic feet (tcf). In June 2016, BP and Italy's Eni announced a "significant" gas discovery in the Baltim South West area estimated at 70-80 billion cubic metres of gas. BP has been aiming to increase investments in Egypt, with plans to invest some $13 billion in the country before 2020, according to a November 2016 press release by the UK embassy in Cairo. In February, Egypt's petroleum ministry, Italian company Eni and BP signed a deal in Cairo to complete the sale to BP of a 10 percent stake in the "super-giant" Zohr gas field in the Shorouk concession off Egypt's Mediterranean shore. Zohr, discovered by Eni in August 2015, is the largest gas field in the Mediterranean, estimated to contain 850 billion cubic metres of gas. Egypt's production of natural gas is currently estimated at around 4.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), and is expected to increase by 1.5 bcfd by the end of 2017, according to a February statement by the petroleum ministry.
