New gas discovery off Israel for Energean

Oil and gas company Energean has made another commercial gas discovery in an exploration well offshore Israel and has moved on to drill the next well in its 2022 – 2023 growth drilling campaign.

Back in June 2021, Energean inked a contract with Stena Drilling for the growth drilling programme offshore Israel, covering the drilling of three firm wells and two optional wells, using the Stena IceMAX drillship. Following Energean’s decision in June 2022 to drill two more exploration wells in waters offshore Israel, the firm exercised its options with Stena Drilling for those wells.

After a commercial gas discovery was confirmed in October 2022 within the Hermes exploration well off Israel, the Stena IceMAX drillship moved to Block 12 – Olympus Area – to drill the Zeus structure, estimated to contain 10 -12 bcm of gross prospective unrisked gas resources in the A/B/C sands.

In an update on Monday, Energean disclosed that a commercial gas discovery was made in the Zeus-01 exploration well. The preliminary estimates indicate that the structure contains 13.3 bcm of recoverable natural gas resources. The company is now undertaking a post-well analysis of the data collected during drilling.

Furthermore, Energean’s reserve auditor, DeGolyer & MacNaughton (D&M), has certified contingent resources of 11.75 bcm in the Athena discovery – made in May 2022 – an increase of 3.75 bcm on the company’s 8 bcm preliminary estimate. This increase follows post-well studies undertaken on data collected during the drilling process.

Moreover, the results from the Zeus well and the Athena post-well analysis provide Energean with “additional confidence” about the volumes and commerciality of the Olympus area, thus the firm is now progressing with its field development plan. The company expects to provide an update on the total resource volumes within the Olympus area, taking into account the uplifted volumes in both Zeus and Athena, in early 2023.

The Stena IceMax drilling rig has now moved to Block 23 to drill Energean’s sixth well in this drilling campaign, which is the Hercules prospect, where the Miocene gas prospect will be targeted.

Mathios Rigas, CEO of Energean, commented: “Following the start of production from our Karish reservoir last week, I am pleased that our drilling programme, which has now delivered five successful wells from five, continues to deliver value, ensuring security of supply and energy competition across the region.

“We are evaluating a number of potential commercialisation options for the Olympus area that leverage both new and our existing, unique Med-based infrastructure, and we expect to commit to a development concept in 1H 2023,“ added Rigas.