DEA farms out West Nile Delta stake to BP

DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG has equalized its working interest and farmed down its stake in the West Nile Delta (WND) project in Egypt to its Joint Venture partner and operator BP in order to, as the company said, better balance its portfolio.

According to the press release, the deal includes the sale of a portion of DEA’s stake in the ongoing Phase 1 development of five trillion cubic feet of gas resources. With the remaining interest of 17.25% in both concessions, WND will remain the largest project in DEA’s portfolio.

The $12 billion West Nile Delta project, which is planned to start production in 2017, is expected to produce 1.2 billion cubic feet per day, which constitutes approximately 25 percent of Egypt’s current gas production, DEA said.

Thomas Rappuhn, CEO of German-based DEA, commented on the decision: “We are one of the leading foreign investors in Egypt and have been committed to the country for more than 40 years. WND is a key part of our portfolio and a strategic project for Egypt, which we are committed to delivering with our partner BP.

“Recognising the world scale of the development, divestment is in line with our strategy to manage risk through greater portfolio diversification.”

According to DEA, by simplifying the DEA holdings to 17.25% across both concessions, the efficiency of field cost management and allocation to different fields were improved.

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