Italy’s Eni outlines expansion of Egypt’s Western Desert Gas Complex in Alexandria to tap gas reserves
Italian energy company Eni has outlined a project to expand natural gas treatment facilities in Egypt connected to the Western Desert Gas Complex in the port of Alexandria to further tap the region's gas reserves.
The expansion of natural gas facilities coincided with an agreement with the Government of Egypt, the Egyptian General Petroleum Corp.(EGPC) and Russian oil company Lukoil for the merger of the concessions of Meleiha and Meleiha Deep, in Egypt's Western Desert, and their extension to 2036.
The extension of the Meleiha concession time also has the possibility of reaching out to a further timeline of 2041.
“The agreement, which marks another important result for Eni in the prolific basin of the Egyptian Western Desert, will unlock, through enhanced contractual terms, the area’s considerable resources,” explained Eni.
“The company will leverage the skills of local contractors already involved in the implementation of important projects in Egypt, including the fast-track development of the giant Zohr gas field,” said Eni.
Before the bringing on stream of the Zohr field in the East Mediterranean in 2017, Egypt had been forced to import LNG from 2015 in two floating storage and regasification units deployed at Ain Sokhna in the Gulf of Suez.
The Egyptians halted LNG imports two years ago and have now started regular exports of LNG from their two liquefaction facilities at Idku and Damietta, east of the port of Alexandria.
The Idku LNG export plant has been on stream again since 2017 under the operatorship of Royal Dutch Shell, which acquired original operator BG Group.
The Damietta facility only re-started operations and exports in February 2021.
With Damietta back on stream, Egypt added 4.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG output to its export volumes now totalling 12.5 MTPA.
The Milan-based major has completed a high-resolution 3D seismic acquisition of the Meleiha blocks ahead of intensive exploration and a development drilling campaign in the Meleiha and Meleiha Deep concessions.
The concessions are operated by Agiba, the 50-50 joint venture between Eni and EGPC through an Eni subsidiary that holds a 76 percent interest in the concessions, while Lukoil holds a 24 percent interest.
