By Mariana Somensi

The West Delta Deep Marine (WDDM) concession is located at the north-western margin of the Nile Delta, approximately 90 km offshore. The concession was awarded to the Contractor Group in the 1993 bid round, having its agreement signed on May 1995. Burullus Gas Company, on behalf of the Partner, has continued with the exploration and development of this concession, from which around 70 wells have been developed until now.

Phase 9b

The scope of the phase 9b project includes drilling eight subsea development wells and tying them in to the existing subsea infrastructure in two campaigns within the WDDM concession area – two wells in Q3 2018, one well in Q1 2019, and 5 wells in Q3/Q4 2019. The project budget accounts for $741 million.

The eight wells are targeting additional reserves in the fields of Sapphire, Scarab, Simian, Sienna, Swan East, and Silva. Total reserves are estimated at almost 400 billion cubic feet (bcf) and 3 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) of condensate, which includes the extension from the existing wells.

The drilling scope of the project rig includes two exploration wells targeting two Messenian prospects, in addition to deepening the Swan East well in order to reach the third Messenian prospect. The produced gas will be processed at Idku processing facilities, which has enough ullage.

The project had its procurement started on August 2017 with the long lead equipment of three wells. The EPIC scope for the two wells to Saipem has been completed. Work related to fabrication activities is ongoing, while installation window has been confirmed for Q3 2018.

The control system of the 2019 campaign activities was awarded to BHGE (2018 LLI already procured as phase 9a+). Work related to trees and CVC systems was awarded to OSS; operations are ongoing and the first tree is expected to be delivered before the end of 2018. The EPIC contractor for the 2019 campaign was awarded to SS7.

The drilling campaign started in April 2018 – the NGT1 Rig arrived and started the first spud late April. The rig will start with one of the two exploration wells (Sapphire and South East), subsequently moving to the two 2018 campaign wells.

Wael El-Serag contributed to this article