Egypt’s gas production and exports are building with the recent opening of several pipelines, and BP PLC is sizing up its first discovery of deep Oligocene nonassociated gas offshore in the Nile Delta.
The country’s mid-2007 internal estimate of gas reserves is 72 tcf, up 36% from 2001, said Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co. (EGAS). Almost four-fifths of the gas is in the Mediterranean Sea.
In terms of gas production, capacity approaching 6 bcfd would put Egypt in the league with Qatar. Before the 1990s, Egypt’s entire gas production was associated gas.
Gas discoveries
Oil discoveries far outnumbered gas finds in Egypt in 2007, but BP reported the Mediterranean Oligocene discovery scarcely a month into 2008.
The Satis-1 well, in 295 ft of water 31 miles north of Damietta, was drilled to a Nile Delta record TD of more than 21,325 ft, BP said.
Without giving test information, BP said the high-pressure, high-temperature discovery well represents “a major technical achievement that demonstrates the great potential of the deeper reservoirs within the Nile Delta and will require further appraisal.”
The company said the discovery “will underscore our position as a major producer in the growing Egyptian gas market for many years to come.”
Nile Delta Oligocene rocks include the Ghazalat, Qatrani, and Abu Zaabal formations, but BP did not identify the producing zone at Satis-1.
It called Satis, on the North El Burg concession, the company’s third deep gas discovery in the Nile Delta, but the earlier Raven discovery in 2003 and Taurus Deep find in 2007, both on the North Alexandria concession, were in rocks of Pliocene age.
North El Burg partners are BP operator with 60% interest and RWE Dea 40%. North El Burg lies between the BP-operated Ras El Barr development concession and the International Egyptian Oil Co.-operated Offshore Baltim development concession. EGAS has an entitlement under North El Burg’s production sharing arrangements.
Another early 2008 discovery came in Egypt’s western desert, where Apache Corp., Houston, gauged the Hydra-1X gas-condensate find in the Jurassic Lower Safa formation (OGJ, Feb. 4, 2008, Newsletter).
The well’s 178 ft of net pay was one of the thickest Lower Safa pay zones identified since Apache’s 2003 discovery 25 miles away at Qasr, at 2.3 tcf of gas and 80.4 million bbl of condensate the company’s largest find ever. Hydra also had 45 ft of probable gas-condensate pay in the Jurassic Alam El Bueib Unit 6 sand and 30 ft of probable oil pay in the Lower Cretaceous AEB Unit 3.
Apache, which averaged 240 MMcfd of gas production in Egypt in 2007, plans to drill 282 wells in 2008, including 40 exploration wells.
The company’s exploratory drilling will target Jurassic formations with gas-condensate potential near the recent Hydra, Qasr, and Jade discoveries; oil potential farther southwest near Apache’s Neith, Heqet, and Buchis development leases; new Bahariya and Abu Roash oil fields in the Abu Gharadig basin; and Apache’s newest acreage in Egypt, a 50% interest in a 10.5-million-acre farmout from Tharwa Petroleum.
Gas pipeline outlets
While supplying more remote reaches of its own country, Egypt is shipping gas to other countries in the Middle East and exporting LNG.
Both Egyptian and foreign companies are participating in the projects, and overall it is estimated that about 29% of the gas produced in Egypt is exported.
Gas began flowing in February through a 62-mile subsea pipeline from El Arish in eastern Egypt to Ashkelon, Israel. Capacity is 165 MMcfd.
The Arab Gas Pipeline, which began transporting gas in 2003 from El Arish to Aqaba and was extended from Aqaba to El Rehab in 2005, is to begin moving gas to Deir Ali in Syria and to Lebanon later in 2008. Ultimate capacity is 950 MMcfd.