Egypt’s oil ministry has confirmed a major new gas discovery offshore at the block 8b concession in the West Delta of the Nile operated by Britain’s BG Group.
The discovery at Harmatan Deep-1 is expected to flow at 39 million cubic feet a day, with 1,039 of associated condensate. Reserves have been put at 123 billion cubic feet of gas and 6.1 million barrels of condensate, according to a statement on the Egyptian oil ministry’s website posted on Friday.
Marmatan Deep-1 is located about 5.2 kilometers north-east of Ras Al-Barr, in water depth of 11m. The depth of the final of the well is 2,775 meters into the Miocene. The discovery follows a detailed 3D seismic program.
BG Egypt is country’s largest natural gas producer, responsible for around a third of national ouput. Its upstream development and production activities in Egypt are undertaken through joint operating companies. In the case of Rosetta, this is through Rashid Petroleum Company (Rashpetco) in which BG Group has a 40% shareholding, and in the case of West Delta Deep Marine (WDDM), this is through Burullus Gas Company (Burullus) in which BG Group has a 25% shareholding.
Since 1994, BG Group has discovered 14 gas fields under the WDDM concession: Scarab, Saffron, Simian, Sienna, Sapphire, Serpent, Saurus, Sequoia, SimSat-P1 and SimSat-P2. Additional development leases were granted in 2007 for the Solar, Sienna-Up, Mina-1 and Silva discoveries.
The company started gas production from Phase 8b of its WDDM concession on 27 June.
