Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company, EGAS, the Egyptian state hydrocarbon company in charge of gas assets, has concluded its 10 month long 2012 International bid round, with the award of acreages to Italian giant ENI, Canada listed Sea Dragon Energy, and UAE based Dana Gas.
ENI won the 3,765km² deepwater Shorouk Offshore exploration Block (Block 9) in the Eastern Mediterranean, through its wholly-owned subsidiary IEOC. Sea Dragon Energy was awarded the 1,275 km² South Disouq concession. Dana Gas walked home with the 2,980km² North El Arish deepwater Block (Block 6), located offshore the Nile Delta. All the winners have 100% equity of the blocks.
ENI’s Shorouk Block is spread on an area of 3,765km² and is situated in water depths ranging from 1,400m to 1,800m. Dana Gas’ North El Arish is in water depths of about 1,000m.
15 Exploration blocks in the Mediterranean Sea and Nile Delta Basins were put on auction on June 4th 2012. Bid round closing date was February 13, 2013, at 12.Noon.
It will be Sea Dragon’s first operated asset in the country(it’s currently involved in other assets as a non operator). The company says the “South Disouq concession is on trend with the prolific Abu Madi accumulations to the north which contain both the giant Abu Madi gas field, with over 3TCF of original gas in place, and the offshore Mediterranean Baltim fields”. It is “also in the same area of the Nile Delta where there had previous success discovering the large El Wastani field with over 500BCF of original gas in place”.
All three companies have been active in Egypt for years, with ENI the oldest tenant, having been in the country since 1954.
