Egypt has seen a ramp-up in offshore drilling plans and activity following Chevron’s 3.5tcf Nargis discovery (MEES, 20 January). While Eni’s Thuraya deepwater wildcat came up dry, the Italian firm’s exploration focus has switched to near-field relatively shallow-water infrastructure-led exploration (so-called ILX) on its North El Hammad Offshore (NEHO) block off the Nile Delta.
As with plans for multi-well campaigns later this year by UK majors Shell and BP which would see drilling targeting potential tie-ins to their WDDM and WND infrastructure (MEES, 12 May), Eni’s ongoing drilling holds out the hope of a relatively near-term boost to Egypt’s gas output which slipped to a 30-month low 5.95bn cfd in April (MEES, 9 June). (CONTINUED - 751 WORDS)
