BG Sanctions WDDM’s Phase 9
BG Group has sanctioned the next phase of development for the West Delta Deep Marine (WDDM) concession offshore Egypt in the Mediterranean. Pending approval from partner Petronas, this will come onstream in 2014, said CEO Chris Finlayson in the company’s Q4 report.
The company’s two major producing assets in Egypt are the WDDM and the Rosetta; production at the Rosetta field is going as expected, while production at the WDDM is seeing decline. The WDDM saw production efficiency of over 90%, but decline in recent years has been seen due to wells experiencing water break-through.
In 2012 BG drilled nine new wells and completed the Phase 7b compression project; this added production and arrested the decline. The wells performed, on average, close to expectation, but unfortunately the compression project led to higher water production and lower gas volumes than planned from existing wells.
To abate this BG and Petronas have a four-point recovery plan for the WDDM. Firstly the partners are improving the predictability of field performance, gathering more reservoir data to improve our sub-surface understanding, and developing a new dynamic production system model. The next point has the partners focusing on increasing production from existing well stock, with a series of workovers and acid stimulations.
The third recovery point is the sanctioning of Phase 9 of the WDDM. Drilling is due to start in Q2 with the first wells onstream in 2014. Phase 9 is part of BG’s plan for 18 new wells to develop an additional 2 Tcf of gas. The fourth and final point is the targeting near field exploration, drilling two wells in 2013, which if successful can be rapidly connected to existing infrastructure.
On a less positive note, BG’s offices in the Maadi suburb of Cairo has been the site of a small protest. According to the protesters’ signs they were calling for the resignation of Hossam Amr and Shady Ayad.
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