European energy majors BP and Eni today announced the discovery of a sizeable natural gas reservoir off the Egyptian coast. The new discovery is located in the Baltim exploration region, near the eastern part of the Nile delta, about 10 kilometers north of the Nooros gas reservoir discovered in July 2015.
The announcement by Italian company Eni said that it estimated that the new discovery contains 70-80 billion cubic meters (BCM). BP said that additional operations were required to estimate the size of the reservoir.
The new discovery is not Eni's first in Egypt. Less than a year ago, Eni, which owns 50% of the rights in the Baltim exploration license, announced the discovery of the Zohr gas reservoir, one of the world's largest. Eni recently predicted that 30 trillion cubic feet (TCF) could be produced from Zohr (for the sake of comparison, 22 TCF can be produced from Leviathan).
While the new discovery is small, it comes on top of the series of gas discoveries in Egypt in recent years, which is liable to intensify competition in the region.
The Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources is currently in a dispute with the gas partnerships - Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) LP (TASE:RATI.L), Delek Drilling Limited Partnership (TASE: DEDR.L), and Avner Oil and Gas LP (TASE: AVNR.L) - concerning the size of the Leviathan reservoir. While the partnerships insist that their original estimate of 21.9 TCF is accurate, the Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources' estimate is 20% lower.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 9, 2016
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