Italian oil and gas company Eni and its partner BP have commenced production from the Baltim South West gas field offshore Egypt.
Discovered in June 2016, the field is located in shallow waters 12km off the Mediterranean coast of Egypt in the Baltim South development lease and lies within the Great Nooros area.
Eni said in a statement: “It lies 10km from the Nooros field, but still within the Great Nooros area. This is an area in which Eni first recognised great gas production potential and where it is conducting other new exploration projects.”
The field is producing with an initial rate of 100 million scf/d
The field’s first well, BSW1, is producing with an initial rate of 100 million standard cubic feet per day (scf/d) from a new offshore platform, which is connected through a new 44km-long pipeline to the existing onshore Abu Madi Gas Plant.
Further, the development at the field involves the drilling of an additional five wells to achieve a production target of 500 million scf/d by the second quarter of 2020.
Volumes produced by Baltim South West will further contribute to Egypt’s natural gas export capacity. The overall gas potential from the Great Nooros Area is nearly 3 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in place. While approximately 2tcf of gas in place is in the Nooros field, the remaining are in the new Baltim South West.
Currently, Eni owns 50% stake in the license of Baltim South through its subsidiary IOEC, while BP holds the remaining.
The project is executed by Petrobel, the operating company jointly owned by Eni and the state corporation Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) on behalf of Medgas.
In 2016, Eni has upgraded the field potential of Baltim South West to 1tcf of gas in place, following the results of the estimation of reserves in the well Baltim South West 2X.
