BP and partner RWE Dea have finalised agreements for the $12bn West Nile Delta (SEN, 31/19) project, offshore Egypt, which will cover development of 140bcm and 55mmbbls of condensate.

Production will be from two BP-operated offshore blocks, North Alexandria (NA) and West Mediterranean Deepwater (WMD).

The Taurus and Libra fields in the North Alexandria concession will be a subsea development tied back some 35km to the existing BG Group operated Burullus West Delta Deep facilities.

The Giza, Fayoum and Raven fields in WMD, meanwhile, will be two circa 70km deepwater subsea-to-shore tiebacks to the existing Rosetta plant, which will be modified for Giza/Fayoum and integrated with a new adjacent onshore plant for Raven. Field infrastructure will include new 24in gas lines, new 6in MEG lines as well as new umbilicals.

Production from WND is expected to reach up to 34mcm/d, equivalent to about 25% of Egypt’s current gas production. The fields are in 400-700m and a total of 21 wells will be drilled in the initial phase.

BP believes that there is the potential through future exploration to add a further 140-200bcm which could boost WND production with additional investments.

At the same time, BP has also confirmed a new discovery in the North Damietta Offshore Concession in the East Nile Delta.

The Atoll-1 well, which is being drilled with the Maersk Discoverer, reached 6,400m depth and hit approximately 50m of gas pay in high quality Oligocene sandstones.

Expected to be the deepest well ever drilled in Egypt, the Atoll well still has another 1km to drill to test the same reservoir section found to be gas bearing in BP’s 2013 Salamat discovery, 15km to the south. It is located 45km to the north west of the Temsah offshore facilities.

Atoll-1 was drilled in 923m water depth and BP has 100% equity in the discovery.