BP started gas production from the second stage of Egypt’s West Nile Delta development offshore Egypt, the company announced on Monday.
The project, which produces gas from the Giza and Fayoum fields, was developed as a deepwater, long-distance tie-back to an existing onshore plant.
The West Nile Delta development includes a total of five gas fields across the North Alexandria and West Mediterranean Deepwater offshore concession blocks.
It was originally planned as two separate projects, but BP and its partners realized the opportunity to deliver it in three stages, accelerating delivery of gas production commitments to Egypt.
Stage one of the project, which started producing in 2017, included gas production from the first two fields, Taurus and Libra.
The Giza and Fayoum development, which includes eight wells, is currently producing around 400 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) and is expected to ramp up to a maximum rate of approximately 700 mmcfd.
The third stage of the West Nile Delta project will develop the Raven field. Production is expected in late 2019.
The successful start up is the second in a string of new upstream major projects expected to be brought online for BP in 2019.
“This important project start-up benefitted from the excellent working relationship between BP and the Egyptian government,' Bob Dudley, BP's CEO said.
'With the second stage of the West Nile Delta now online, BP has now safely brought 21 new upstream major projects into production over the last three years, keeping us on track to deliver 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2021,' Dudley said.
When fully onstream in 2019, combined production from all three phases of the West Nile Delta project is expected to reach up to almost 1.4 billion cubic feet per day, equivalent to about 20 percent of Egypt’s current gas production.
All the gas produced will be fed into the Egyptian national gas grid.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr