UK major BP has started first gas production from the second stage of its West Nile Delta development offshore Egypt, it said February 11. The project, which produces gas from the Giza and Fayoum fields, was developed as a deepwater, long-distance tie-back to an existing onshore plant.

CEO Bob Dudley said: “This important project start-up benefited from the excellent working relationship between BP and the Egyptian government. We simply could not have delivered it successfully without the steadfast support of the minister of petroleum [Tarek El Molla], his excellent team and the entire government.

“With the second stage of West Nile Delta now online, BP has now safely brought 21 new upstream major projects into production over the last three years, keeping us on track to deliver 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent/day by 2021.”

The West Nile Delta development includes a total of five gas fields across the North Alexandria and West Mediterranean Deepwater offshore concession blocks. It was originally planned as two separate projects, but BP and its partners realised the opportunity to deliver it in three stages, accelerating delivery of gas production commitments to Egypt.

Stage one of the project, which started producing in 2017, included gas production from the first two fields, Taurus and Libra. The Giza and Fayoum development, which includes eight wells, is producing around 400mn ft³/d is expected to ramp up to a maximum rate of approximately 700mn ft³/d. The third stage of the West Nile Delta project will develop the Raven field. Production is expected in late 2019.

BP's president for north Africa Hesham Mekawi said the multi-phase, complex project "plays an important role in both Egypt’s gas supply and BP’s strategy. Our story in Egypt now stretches back for more than half a century and, thanks to projects like this, it has a bright future. Production from Giza and Fayoum will sustain local energy supply and keep us on track to triple our net production from Egypt by 2020.”

When fully onstream in 2019, combined production from all three phases of the West Nile Delta project is expected to reach up to almost 1.4bn ft³/day, about a fifth of Egypt’s current gas production. All the gas produced will be fed into the national gas grid. BP has an operating stake of 82.75% in the development.

Atoll Phase One project started in 2018 and after almost a year of production, produces 350mn ft³/day from three wells, feeding the country’s national grid. A fourth well will be drilled later in 2019 to underpin the deliver of the field’s recoverable resources.