Eni, BP announce new gas discovery in EastMed: Eni and BP have made a new gas discovery in the offshore “Great Nooros Area” surrounding Eni’s Nooros field in the Nile Delta, the Italian oil giant announced in a statement. Eni, which operates the Abu Madi West Development Lease, and contractor BP found “gas-bearing sands … with good petrophysical properties” through the Nidoco NW-1 exploratory well, the statement says. Preliminary evaluation of the discovery, alongside recent finds in the area, raises gas estimates in the Great Nooros Area to over 4 tcf (c.110 bcm). By way of comparison, Zohr, Egypt’s largest gas field, holds nearly 30 tcf (or 850 bcm) of reserves.

This is the second discovery made by the two companies in recent months: Eni and BP, together with Total, announced in July the discovery of a gas field in the North El Hammad concession in the EastMed after completing tests at the Bashrush well. The tests yielded flow rates of up to 32 mn scf/d, which is expected to increase to 100 mn scf/d per well in the future. There is yet to be an official reserve estimate, but an official at the state-owned gas company EGAS claimed that reserves could be as much as 250 bn cubic feet.