LNG

Saipem, the Italian subsea and drilling company, has been awarded contracts in the LNG-producing nation of Angola for the Azule Energy joint venture and for wells in the Côte d'Ivoire where the West African nation is aiming to boost oil and gas production.

Kosmos Energy, the US-based oil and gas development company and shareholder in the BP-led Senegal-Mauritania floating LNG production project offshore West Africa, swung to a third-quarter profit from a previous loss as it advanced with Atlantic-Margin projects in Africa and the Gulf of Mexico.

Reliance Industries of India and BP of the UK said a second natural gas field had come on stream ahead of the mid-2021 schedule in the Krishna Godavari Basin offshore the Indian East Coast, adding to the nation’s gas supply in addition to LNG shipments.

Italian energy company Eni and UK major BP announced a new natural gas discovery in the “Great Nooros Area” of the Abu Madi West Development lease in the Nile Delta offshore Egypt and coupled with other finds in the block there is potential for LNG production.

Eni said that there could be more than 4 trillion cubic feet of gas in place in the Great Nooros Area where there have been other discoveries since 2015.

The latest exploration and production success for Eni is making the East Mediterranean Basin a potential world-class gas province with other nations such as Israel and Cyprus also making discoveries in recent years.

The Nile Delta Block operator Eni said the new discovery, achieved through the Nidoco NW-1 exploratory well, is located in 16 metres of water depth and is four kilometres north from the Nooros field discovered in July 2015.

The Nidoco NW-1 exploratory well discovered gas-bearing sands for a total thickness of 100 metres.

“In the Abu Madi formations a new level, which was not yet encountered in the Nooros field, has been crossed proving the high potential of the Great Nooros Area and the further extension of the gas potential to the North of the field,” explained the Italian company.

“The preliminary evaluation of the well results, considering the extension of the reservoir towards north and the dynamic behaviour 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,” stated Eni.

Eni said that together with its partner BP and in coordination with the Egyptian petroleum sector, it would begin screening the development options of this new discovery and available synergies with the area's existing infrastructure.

Eni holds a 75 percent stake in the license of Abu Madi West lease, while BP owns the remaining 25 percent stake.

The Italian company’s title of operator is in conjunction with Petrobel, an equal joint venture between Eni and the state company Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. (EGPC).

Eni signed a series of agreements in March 2020 with the government of Egypt and state-owned companies to re-open the nation’s Damietta LNG export plant east of Alexandria.

The plant, a joint venture called Segas, is 40 percent-owned by Eni through Union Fenosa Gas (50 percent Eni and 50 percent Naturgy).

The facility has a nameplate capacity of 5.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG, but has been idle since November 2012 when Egypt suffered natural gas shortages.

In addition to Damietta LNG, Egypt has a second export plant, the Idku facility operated by Royal Dutch Shell and which has been back in commercial operation since 2017.

Eni’s discovery of the huge Zohr gas field in the East Med in 2015 helped transform the Arab nation’s LNG and domestic gas fortunes.  

Kosmos Energy, a stakeholder in several floating liquefied natural gas projects offshore West Africa, said that the latest drilling in the offshore Yakaar-Teranga field encountered world-scale resources with the potential to support another LNG project.

BP of the UK started natural gas production from the Atoll Phase One project in the East Nile Delta offshore Egypt as the country drew closer to ending LNG shipments to meet shortfalls in demand.