U.S.-headquartered energy giant Chevron has made a significant new gas discovery in the Nargis Offshore Area concession, which is located in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, offshore Egypt.
Chevron holds a 45 per cent interest and acts as the operator of Egypt’s Nargis Offshore Area concession, which is ~445,000 acres – 1,800 square kilometres – while Eni’s wholly owned affiliate IEOC Production holds a 45 per cent stake and Tharwa Petroleum Company SAE holds a 10 per cent interest in this asset.
The new gas discovery at the Nargis-1 exploration well located in the Nargis Offshore Area concession was announced by Chevron’s partner, Eni, on Sunday, 15 January 2023. This well encountered approximately 200 net feet (61 m) of Miocene and Oligocene gas-bearing sandstones and was drilled in 1,014 feet (309 m) of water by Stena Drilling’s Stena Forth drillship.
As reported in September 2022, this drillship was expected to arrive at Nargis Offshore in the Eastern Mediterranean on 20 September 2022. Stena Drilling’s fleet availability report showed at the time that the drillship was booked into part of 2Q 2023, becoming available in May 2023.
According to Eni, the discovery can be developed by leveraging the proximity to its existing facilities. Furthermore, Nargis-1 confirms the validity of Eni’s focus offshore Egypt, which the company will further develop thanks to the recent award of exploration blocks North Rafah , North El Fayrouz , North East El Arish, Tiba and Bellatrix-Seti East .
Eni has been present in Egypt since 1954, where it operates through the subsidiary IEOC with an equity production of hydrocarbons of approximately 350,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. In line with the net-zero strategy by 2050, the Italian giant is engaged in a series of initiatives aimed at decarbonising the Egyptian energy sector, including the development of CCS plants, renewable energy plants, agro feedstock for biorefining and others.
Regarding Eni’s activities elsewhere, it is worth noting that the oil major launched the second floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project in the Republic of Congo at the end of last month to increase production and export.