CAIRO, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said on Friday that drilling at an exploration well in the Temsah concession, an offshore oil and gas exploration and production block in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, had yielded positive results, with initial estimates indicating about 200 billion cubic feet of natural gas in the reservoir.
Initial drilling and evaluation identified a gas-bearing layer with favorable petrophysical properties and a net thickness of approximately 15 meters in true vertical depth.
The ministry said technical and reservoir studies are continuing to assess the discovery, determine recoverable reserves and production potential, and prepare a development and production plan.
Italy's Eni operates the Temsah concession in partnership with Australia's Woodside, while Petrobel, the joint venture between Eni and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, carried out the drilling on behalf of the partners.
To accelerate the development, plans are also underway to connect the well to existing production facilities through a 22-km pipeline linking it to the Abu Madi-El Gamil pipeline.
The ministry said the connection would use existing infrastructure, reduce the time required to bring the discovery into production, and support Egypt's domestic natural gas output. ■