EGYPT – British Petroleum, an oil and gas major, has reported that it has started gas production from the Qattameya gas field in the North Damietta concession offshore Egypt.
BP stated that it developed Qattameya via its Pharaonic Petroleum Co.(PhPC) joint venture. The firm noted the field – expected to produce up to 50 million cubic feet of gas per day – reached the production start-up via a one-well subsea development and tie-back to existing infrastructure.
“We are proud to have brought this project safely onstream through an extremely challenging period,” said Karim Alaa, BP’s regional president for North Africa.
“Our team continues to work to support Egypt realizing the potential of its energy resources, adding to our track-record of delivery and enabled by our established partnerships with the Egyptian petroleum sector.”
“Creating value through high-quality, efficient oil and gas development is a key part of BP’s strategy. We see this as a great example of resilient hydrocarbons development.”
Karim Alaa – Regional president, BP North Africa
Announced in 2017, the Qattameya discovery is located in 354 feet (108 meters) of water approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) west of the Ha’py platform, BP pointed out. A new 31-mile (50-kilometer) pipeline links it to the Ha’py and Tuart field development, and an umbilical of the same length connects it to their existing subsea utilities, the firm added.
“By building on BP’s significant existing assets and infrastructure offshore Egypt, we were able to develop Qattameya efficiently and economically,” added Alaa.
“Creating value through high-quality, efficient oil and gas development is a key part of BP’s strategy. We see this as a great example of resilient hydrocarbons development.”
BP produces Egypt’s gas through Pharaonic Petroleum, and Petrobel in the East Nile Delta as well as through BP’s operated West Nile Delta fields, according to its website.
BP was supposed to deliver 900,000 boe/d of gas production by 2021 from Egypt and other investments, former group CEO Bob Dudley said in a Feb. 11, 2019, statement.
The company has a number of stakes in big gas projects, including a 25% participating interest in the offshore Nour North Sinai concession area offshore and a 10% stake in the Shorouk concession which contains the giant Zohr gas field in the Mediterranean Sea. Both stakes were acquired from Italy’s Eni, which discovered the Zohr field.
IEni said Sept. 16 that it made a new gas discovery in shallow waters offshore Egypt in the Great Nooros area, in which BP is a partner, bringing total estimated gas in place there to more than 4 Tcf. Eni has a 75% stake in the license, with the rest held by BP.
The development of the 30 Tcf deepwater Zohr field, which was discovered in 2015, helped bring Egypt back to self-sufficiency in gas. Longer term, with Mediterranean countries taking growing quantities of LNG, it is expected Egypt could gain significant market influence, analysts have said.
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