New offshore natural gas deposit discovered in Egypt

01/19/2023 / By Arsenio Toledo

Italian energy company Eni and American energy company Chevron have announced the discovery of a new gas deposit in an Egyptian offshore field in the Eastern Mediterranean sea. The deposit was found in an area in the Eastern Mediterranean known as Nargis 1, which is part of Egypt’s 1,800-square kilometer (695 square miles) Nargis Offshore Area concession operated by Chevron and Eni.

Chevron and Eni each hold a 45 percent stake in the operations while the emaining 10 percent is owned by Tharwa Petroleum Company SAE, a nationally-owned Egyptian energy company. (Related: OPERATION SANDMAN now activated – Saudi Arabia announces END of dollar dominance in global oil trade … the dominoes begin to fall on the US empire.)

Egypt has become a hot spot for natural gas drilling and exploration after Eni announced the discovery of the giant offshore Zohr gas field in 2015. The volume of reserves in Nargis 1 is still being evaluated, but a statement last month from Egypt suggested that the site could hold some 99 billion cubic meters (35 billion tons) of natural gas.

“Nargis 1 confirms the validity of Eni’s focus on Egypt offshore, 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,” said Eni in a statement following the discovery.

Clay Neff, president of Chevron International Exploration and Production, said the company was encouraged by the success of this first exploration of oil well that encountered high-quality reservoirs.

The state-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company said it will work with Chevron, Eni and other partners to start natural gas production in Nargis 1 as soon as possible.

Eni, Chevron and Tharwa said in a joint statement that the new natural gas discovery at Nargis 1 “can be developed by leveraging the proximity to Eni’s existing facilities.”

Egypt’s position as crucial gas provider boosted by discovery

Since 2015, Egypt’s importance in the region as a major producer and exporter of natural gas has steadily been growing due to the country’s continued exploration of natural gas in the Mediterranean Sea.

In 2021, Egypt had around 2.21 trillion cubic meters (780 billion tons) of proven gas reserves and produced over 95 billion cubic meters (33.5 billion tons). The reserves were boosted by the discovery of the Zohr field in 2015, expanding the proven reserves by 850 billion cubic meters (300 billion tons) of natural gas.

In the past six years, Egypt has boosted its gas production by 66 percent. In 2022, as Europe and North America were dealing with severe natural gas shortages, Egypt was exporting about 22 million cubic meters (eight million tons) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) worth $8 billion to $8.5 billion. Around 90 percent of these exports went to Europe, up from around 80 percent in the previous year.

Exports to Europe are expected to increase this year as the continent works to wean itself off its reliance on Russian gas. Egypt recently signed a deal with Israel and the European Union to boost gas energy imports from the Eastern Mediterranean.

To this end, Egypt is attempting to entice more Western and Israeli energy companies to participate in exploration projects in Egypt and Israel.

Recently, Egypt agreed to grant ExxonMobil more oil and gas exploration rights to two offshore blocks in the outer Nile Delta. Exploration in these blocks, which covers around 11,000 square kilometers (4,200 square miles), is slated to begin later this year. ExxonMobil has the full right to operate both blocks with a 100 percent stake.

Learn more about the global energy situation at NewEnergyReport.com.

Watch this clip from Newsmax discussing how the White House has officially allowed Chevron to resume oil operations in Venezuela.

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