Eni And BP Upgrade Potential Of Baltim South West In Egypt

Italy’s oil behemoth, Eni SpA (TO:E) recently announced that it, along with supermajor BP plc (NYSE:BP) , now expect higher field potential of the Baltim field in the East Nile Delta, off Egypt, after striking additional gas with the latest well drilled on the project.

The field potential of Baltim South West has been augmented to 1 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in place, subsequent to the results of the appraisal well Baltim South West 2X, which was drilled immediately after the successful drilling of the discovery well Baltim South West 1X.

Located in the conventional waters of the Nile Delta, the Baltim South West field lies in water depth of 25 meters, 12 kilometers away from the coastline. It is about 10 kilometers away from the Nooros field, which was discovered in Jul 2015 and has already been brought online.

The Baltim South West 2X well hit a gas column of 102 meters in total, of which 86 meters net, in two sand layers of messinian age with excellent reservoirs.

With the drilling of this new well, the gas potential of this Nooros Area has touched 3 tcf of gas in place. Of this, about 2 tcf are in the Nooros field, while the remaining are in the new independent discovery of Baltim South West. Eni and its partner BP are already engaged in the development options for this new discovery.

In case of Nooros, the company intends to enhance the synergies with existing infrastructures of the area, as per the “near field” exploration strategy adopted by Eni to leverage on the high value opportunities that can contribute to a rapid development of new discoveries.

Eni has a stake of 50% in the license of Baltim South through its subsidiary IOEC, while BP holds the remaining 50% stake. Petrobel, a joint venture between IEOC and the state company Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), is the operator.

Eni’s presence in Egypt dates back to 1954, where it operates through IEOC Production BV. The current equity production in the country is about 205000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Eni currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked players from the energy sector are EQT Midstream Partners, LP (TO:E) and NGL Energy Partners LP (NYSE:NGL) . All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

In the last reported quarter, EQT Midstream delivered a positive earnings surprise of 6.72%. Coming to the earnings surprise history, EQT Midstream beat estimates in three of the last four quarters.

NGL Energy Partners has a mixed earnings surprise history. The partnership posted positive earnings surprise in two of the last four quarters. It reported a positive earnings surprise of 1480.0% in the preceding quarter.

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