European oil and gas giants, BP and Eni, announced their latest natural gas reservoir discovery in the Baltim exploration region in Egypt, which is jointly owned by both companies, reported Your Oil and Gas News.

According to Ahram Online, the Baltim South West Well (SW-1) is located 10 km north of the Nooros field – that was discovered in July 2015 – and 12 km off the Egyptian coast. The discovery further “confirms the significant potential of the so called Great Nooros Area, which is now estimated to hold 70-80bcm of gas in place,” read a statement by Eni.

The SW-1 exploration well was drilled in a water depth of 25 meters by the operator IEOC (Eni), reached a total depth of 3,750 meters, and penetrated almost 62 meters of net gas pay in high quality Messinian Sandstones.

The Regional President of BP North Africa, Hesham Mekawi, was quoted by Reuters saying: “Our plan is to utilize existing infrastructure which will accelerate the development of the discovery, and expedite early production start-up.”

The well was drilled by Petrobel, a joint venture between IEOC and EGPC. BP stated further that additional operations are required to define the exact size of the reservoir.