Chevron and Eni have made a “significant” gas discovery in the Eastern Mediterranean, the companies announced in separate statements yesterday (here and here, pdf). The discovery was made at their Nargis offshore block off the coast of North Sinai, in which each company holds a 45% interest, while state-owned Tharwa Petroleum holds the remaining 10%. Both companies described the finding as “significant” but didn’t disclose how much gas is estimated to be in place.

Work is underway to estimate the size of the gas reserves at Nargis, Oil Ministry Spokesperson Hamdy Abdelaziz told Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa (watch, runtime: 8:31) and Al Hadath Al Youm (watch, runtime: 3:16) adding that this is Chevron’s first discovery since it entered our market in 2020.

A really big find?: MEES reported last month that the field has been estimated to hold 3.5 tn cubic feet of gas. Oil Minister Tarek El Molla later confirmed that a large gas discovery had been made at the block but didn’t disclose the size of the finding. Upstream Online has also reported that Chevron’s Nargis-I field was in the 3.5 tcf range — but reported that Eni was “shooting for the stars” with an “11 tcf probe” that it said targets a “huge Thuraya prospect in a a block that may host an extension of Chevron’s Nargis discovery.”

How big is this? For context, Eni’s supergiant Zohr field is estimated at about 30 tcf.

The oil giants are hungry for offshore exploration in Egypt: In its statement, Eni reiterated its “focus on Egypt offshore,” which it aims to advance after recently being awarded exploration blocks in North Rafah, North El Fayrouz, North East El Arish, Tiba and Bellatrix-Seti East. Eni is in the process of selling down shares in its mature producing concessions in the Western Desert but is also preparing to launch new exploration efforts in the area. Chevron, meanwhile, is looking to expand its exploration operations in Egypt after stepping up its presence in the EastMed hydrocarbon sector, purchasing a 40% stake in Israel’s Leviathan field and 25% of Tamar in recent years.

And both companies want to help boost our energy infrastructure: Eni — which holds a 50% stake in the Damietta LNG plant and produces around 60% of the country’s gas — has committed to investing in upstream assets here and across the region as it works to boost its LNG export capacity to Europe. State-owned EGAS signed an MoU with Chevron in July to work on developing infrastructure to transport gas from offshore fields to Egypt and increase exports. Those investments could bring a welcome boost to local gas production, which has reportedly slipped in recent months from a peak of 7.2 bn cubic feet per day in September 2021 to 6.5 bn cf/d in 3Q 2022.

More where that came from: Work is also underway to determine the size of a new gas discovery (pdf) in the East Damanhour block Wintershell Dea holds with Cheiron Energy and other partners in the Nile Delta, said the Oil Ministry’s Abdelaziz.

REMEMBER- Egypt is trying to maximize its exports of natural gas as the EU looks for new energy suppliers to fill the gap left by the loss of Russian fossil fuels. The state is rationing its usage of gas for domestic power production and turning to other types of fuel in order to free up more gas for export. The Oil Ministry plans to run our two liquefaction plants at full capacity throughout this year in a bid to bring LNG exports to a maximum capacity of 12 mn tons per annum. Export volumes were up 14% to hit 8 mn tons last year — 90% of which was directed to Europe.