Offshore staff
LONDON – BP Egypt has discovered gas in the deepwater Atoll structure in the North Damietta Offshore concession in the East Nile Delta.
To date the Atoll-1 well, drilled by the sixth-generation semisubmersibleMaersk Discoverer, has reached a depth of 6,400 m (20,997 ft), penetrating around 50 m (164 ft) of gas pay in good-quality Oligocene sandstones.
Drilling will continue another 1 km (0.6 mi) in order to test the same reservoir section that proved to be gas bearing in the company’s 2013Salamat discovery, 15 km (9.3 mi) to the south. Atoll-1 will therefore likely be Egypt’s deepest well do date, BP added.
Bob Dudley, group CEO, said the estimated potential in the concession now exceeds 5 tcf, a positive starting point for what could be the company’s major development in Egypt after theWest Nile Delta project.
Atoll-1 is being drilled in 923 m (3,028 ft) of water, around 80 km (49.7 mi) north of Damietta city, and 45 km (28 mi) northwest of the Temsah offshore facilities. BP has a 100% interest in the discovery.
03/12/2015
