Italy's Eni seeks to drill a new exploratory deep water well in the Abu Madi concession area in the Nile Delta in the coming year, with the aim of expanding the search for natural gas and increasing production rates. A source at the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) told Daily News Egypt that the exploratory well would be drilled in the same concession area where the Nooros gas field was discovered in July 2015. He explained that the results of the seismic survey of the area indicated that there are undiscovered quantities of natural gas. The source added that Nooros is one of the largest Egyptian gas producing fields with an average production rate of 1.2bn cubic feet per day(cfpd). The Nooros field was achieved in a record time and contributed to the increase of domestic production of natural gas. The total reserves of the Nooros field are estimated at about 2tn (cf) of gas. Eni, through its subsidiary Italian Egyptian Oil Company (IEOC), holds a 75% stake of the Abu Madi West concession in partnership with BP, which has a 25% stake. The operator of Nile Delta is Petrobel, a joint venture between IEOC and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC). The source noted that Petrobel's gas production increased to about 3.6bn (cfpd), an increase of 10% from the planned in the current fiscal year. The increase comes from the company's fields in the Gulf of Suez, the Mediterranean Sea, and Nile Delta region. It came as a result of the successive increase of the Zohr field's output as well as Nooros to 1.2bn (cfpd). The number of Nooros wells reached about 14 development wells with production rates of 1.2bn (cfpd), about 8,500 barrels of condensate per day, and 115 tonnes of butane per day. The development of the second phase of the Zohr gas field will be completed next July, bringing the total production to about 2.95bn (cfpd), instead of estimated 2.7bn (cf) in the development plan.
