Eni makes new discovery in Egypt's Western Desert

MILAN, Italy -- Eni has announced a new discovery of oil and gas in the West Melehia deep exploration prospect, located in the Melehia license, in the Western Desert of Egypt.

The exploration well, which allowed the discovery of Melehia West Deep 1X, was drilled to a depth of 4,175 m, meeting a 20 m net mineralized accumulation of light oil in the Lower Cretaceous age of the Alam El Bueib formation. The well also encountered a significant mineralized accumulation of gas and condensates in the Upper Jurassic age in the Safa formation.

The well began production with an initial flow of 2,100 bopd (40° API).

The discovery will be rapidly followed by the drilling of other delineation and development wells, which should result in an estimated production of about 8,000 bopd by the end of 2015.

Eni, through its subsidiary International Egyptian Oil Company, holds a 76% stake in the Melehia license. Lukoil is the other partner with a 24% stake. The operator is Agiba, which is equally held by IEOC and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation.

In the last three years, in the Western Desert of Egypt, Eni has doubled its oil production through exploration of deep sequences. The company currently produces more than 60,000 bopd in five different development licenses, all operated by Agiba.

Eni has been present in Egypt since 1954, where it operates through IEOC and has an equity production of approximately 210,000 boed.