BP starts up Egypt’s West Nile Delta stage two production

UK-based energy giant and LNG player BP produced first gas from the second stage of its West Nile Delta development offshore Egypt.

The project, which produces gas from the Giza and Fayoum fields, was developed as a deepwater, long-distance tie-back to an existing onshore plant, BP said in a statement.

The successful startup is the second in a string of new upstream major projects expected to be brought online in 2019 for BP.

Bob Dudley, BP chief executive, said, “with the second stage of West Nile Delta now online, BP has now safely brought 21 new upstream major projects into production over the last three years, keeping us on track to deliver 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2021.”

The West Nile Delta development includes a total of five gas fields across the North Alexandria and West Mediterranean Deepwater offshore concession blocks. It was originally planned as two separate projects, but BP and its partners realized the opportunity to deliver it in three stages, accelerating delivery of gas production commitments to Egypt.

Stage one of the project, which started producing in 2017, included gas production from the first two fields, Taurus and Libra.

The Giza and Fayoum development, which includes eight wells, is currently producing around 400 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd) and is expected to ramp up to a maximum rate of approximately 700 mmscfd.

The third stage of the West Nile Delta project will develop the Raven field. Production is expected in late 2019.

When fully onstream in 2019, combined production from all three phases of the West Nile Delta project is expected to reach up to almost 1.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d), equivalent to about 20 percent of Egypt’s current gas production. All the gas produced will be fed into the national gas grid.

BP has an operating stake of 82.75 percent in the development.