BP hands out multi-million deal for mega gas project in Mediterranean Sea

UK-headquartered energy giant BP has hired a compatriot drilling waste management specialist, TWMA, for its large-scale gas project off Egypt. This deal is worth up to $15 million.

According to TWMA, it will utilise its RotoMill drill cuttings processing technology to process all drilling waste generated from BP’s West Nile Delta (WND) and East Nile ‎Delta (END) exploration and development project in the Mediterranean Sea. The work, which is expected to take five years, will start in October this year.  

Abdelrahman Amin, general manager for TWMA Egypt, commented: “This contract is a testament to the lasting relationship we have built with BP since we began working with them in 2005. Having proven our capabilities throughout our North African operations, we were chosen as the trusted contractor to support this project based on the quality performance we have consistently delivered. 

“The environmental benefits associated with this technology were an important factor in securing this award. BP is always eager to ensure their project’s environmental impact is kept to a minimum. By utilising the RotoMill on this operation, BP can recover and reuse valuable base oil in their drilling system, delivering both environmental and commercial value to their operation.”

TWMA explains that the RotoMill has been chosen for its environmental benefits, as it uses a process of thermal desorption to separate drill cuttings and associated materials into their three constituent parts: oil, water, and solids, for recycling and reuse. The company’s precision equipment establishes optimum temperatures to ensure that recovered base oil retains its full original quality and can be reused in the drilling mud system.  

With its partners, BP produces Egypt’s gas through a joint ‎venture with the Pharaonic Petroleum Company (PhPC) and Petrobel (IEOC JV) in the East Nile ‎Delta as well as through its operated West Nile Delta gas development. BP has an 82.75 per cent stake in the West Nile Delta offshore gas project while its partner, Wintershall Dea, holds the remaining 17.25 per cent interest.

A few months ago, BP put Subsea Integration Alliance, the partnership between Subsea 7 and OneSubsea, in charge of a two-well tie-back project in the large, multi-stage West Nile Delta development off the Mediterranean coast in Egypt. Located 65 to 85 kilometres off the coast of Alexandria, the fields of the WND deepwater offshore concession blocks in the Mediterranean Sea were discovered between 2000 and 2010.

According to Wintershall Dea, the $9 billion WHD project is one of the largest projects in the Mediterranean and consists of five fields with 25 producing wells. The first gas from the project was produced in 2017 from the Taurus and Libra fields.

When February 2019 rolled in, two additional fields, Giza and Fayoum, started production, and the fifth and largest field, Raven, followed in 2021. While the onshore processing facilities have a total gas processing capacity of 1.4 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day, the gas produced is fed into the Egyptian national grid.