Eni makes major oil discovery in Egypt’s Western Desert

Eni has made a significant oil discovery at the Emry Deep exploration prospect, located in the Meleiha Concession, in the Western Desert of Egypt, 290 km south west of Alexandria.

The Emry Deep 1X well led to the discovery of oil and was drilled to a total depth of 3628 m. The well encountered over 250 ft of net pay in multiple good-quality sandstones of the Lower Cretaceous "Alam El Bueib" Formation. During production tests the well flowed 3500 barrels of high quality oil (41° API) per day and 1 million ft³/d ofassociated gas. The discovery is now estimated to range between 150 and 250 million barrels of oil in place and will require further appraisal drilling.

The drilling of the well is part of Eni's strategy to refocus exploration activities in Egypt by targeting deeper plays in the Western Desert.

The full field development foresees an early production phase from the current well, which will be followed by the drilling of other development wells in 2012 to reach a production level of approximately 10,000 bpd of oil in the next months.  Production will be routed to the nearby treatment facilities of Meleiha field. The short time to market of this discovery is also a result of Eni's strategy to focus on fast track development of conventional assets and those with synergies.

This result confirms that the Meleiha concession still holds significant un-tapped deep exploration potential and that the recently acquired 3D seismic survey has boosted the potential of the deep Lower Cretaceous and Jurassic formations.

Adapted from press release by Peter Farrell.

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/exploration/30052012/eni-makes-major-oil-discover-in-egypt%E2%80%99s-western-desert/