(Ecofin Agency) - Following the completion of the drilling of the first well, Baltim SW 1, British Petroleum (BP) and Eni have estimated the reserves in their concession area in south Baltim, to be 700 billion cubic feet of extractable gas.

The drilling of the Baltim SW 1 well reached a depth of 4,000 metres, which comprised 25 metres of water.

According to a senior source in the oil industry, each well to be drilled needs a drilling time of two and a half months.

“The preliminary results of the first well are very promising,” the source said, adding that the exact amounts of gas will be established after the second well has drilled.

The Baltim SW 1 discovery is located in south Baltim, east of the Nile Delta, 12km from the Noras field recently discovered by Eni.

Hesham Mekawi (photo), the president of BP’s North Africa division, in a statement revealed that during the drilling, the first well which is situated 12km from the beach pierced a 62-metre-thick, high-quality gas reserving sandstone layer.

He stated that the new discovery is comparable to the Noras field discovered in July 2015 and currently producing 65,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.

The overall production of natural gas from Egypt is currently at 3.95 billion cubic feet of gas per day. The country also imports gas via two gasification ships through the port of Ain Sokhna and the Jordan gas line, Daily News Egypt reports.

Anita Fatunji