All is not plain sailing at BP’s $12bn, 5tcf, West Nile Delta (WND) project in Egypt’s deepwater Mediterranean. Not only did last month’s start-up of Phase-2 output from the Giza and Fayoum fields miss the “late 2018” schedule, but production from Phase-1 has “experienced steeper than anticipated decline,” 17.25% partner Dea acknowledges in its Q4 results, released 7 March.
Output from the two Phase-1 fields, Taurus and Libra, began in late March 2017, with operator BP (82.75%) saying just over a month later that production had hit 700mn cfd (MEES, 12 May 2017). BP added at the time that it expected output to average target plateau levels of 600mn cfd for the remainder of 2017. (CONTINUED - 1014 WORDS)
