Italy’s Eni and partner BP have made a natural gas discovery in the Great Nooros Area in the conventional waters of the Nile Delta offshore Egypt, according to a news release.

“The preliminary evaluation of the well results, considering the extension of the reservoir towards north and the dynamic behavior of the field, together with the recent discoveries performed in the area, indicates that the Great Nooros Area gas in place can be estimated in excess of 4 Tcf,” Eni said in the release Sept. 16.

Drilled about 4 km north of the Nooros Field in a water depth of 16 meters, the Nidoco NW-1 exploratory well hit gas-bearing sands for a total thickness of 100 meters. The amount was evenly split between the Kafr-El-Sheik formation’s Pliocene sands and the Abu Madi formation’s Messinian-age sandstone, Eni said.

Working with the Egyptian petroleum sector, Eni and BP will begin considering development options.

The discovery is located in the Abu Madi West Development Lease, which is operated by Petrobel, an equal joint venture between Eni subsidiary IEOC and the state company Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. Eni holds a 75% stake in the license, while BP holds the remaining 25%.

Offshore