BP Egypt Announces Raven Discovery In The Nile Delta

BP Egypt today announced a gas and condensate discovery in the western Nile Delta. The Raven 1 exploration well in the North Alexandria (N Alex) Concession is the fourth discovery on this block following the Taurus, Libra and Fayoum discoveries made in 2000 and 2001.

Raven 1 is located northwest of Rosetta, 40 kilometers off the coast of Egypt at a water depth of about 650 meters. On March 20th, 2004 the Raven 1 well successfully tested and flowed gas at rates up to 37.4 million standard cubic feet per day and 741 barrels of condensate per day.

The Raven 1 well is the second well of a three well program BP is currently operating in the Nile Delta. Ruby 2, in the West Mediterranean Deepwater concession (WMDW), was the first well drilled, and was successfully appraised in September 2003. After having completed a sidetrack to drill additional deeper targets, the rig will move to the Polaris 1 location on the WMDW concession to drill another well.

BP operates the N Alex concession with a 60% working interest with RWE Dea holding the remaining 40% interest in the block. The West Mediterranean Deepwater concession is immediately adjacent to N Alex where BP, as operator, holds an 80% working interest in the block and RWE Dea holds 20%.