Eni and BP have completed the drilling of the second well in the South Baltim field, located southeast of the Nile Delta in Egypt.

According to a source in the Petroleum Sector, the second well’s production is currently being inspected in order to confirm the results of the first well, as regards the available quantity of natural gas, Daily News Egypt reports.

Eni and BP target drilling six developing wells at a depth ranging from 3,900-4,000 meters below sea level.

The field’s reserves are estimated at 700 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas, the source said adding that the reserves were estimated in line with the initial results of the first well, which are very promising.

The production platform is in progress to connect 350 Mmcf/d of gas from the project to the national grid by the beginning of 2018.

The new discovery is located in the South Baltim development area, east of the Nile Delta and 12km away from the Nourase field discovered by Eni in July 2015.

Egypt’s overall production of natural gas is approximately 4.17bn cubic feet of gas per day, of which 1.3bn feet of gas is imported through the gasification ships in Ain Sokhna port and Jordan’s gas line.

Anita Fatunji