BP Eyes First Gas Months Earlier With Subsea Ops Already Underway, as Valaris Rig Moves to Next Well

UK-headquartered energy giant BP has wrapped up drilling activities at two wells, targeting to bring them on stream next month. To this end, subsea commissioning operations are ongoing within the Egyptian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Mediterranean Sea, as a Valaris-owned drillship goes to the next well on its drilling agenda in the East Mediterranean (East Med) with the European oil major.

The country’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has disclosed a new success in the East Med region, thanks to the completion of drilling activities undertaken by BP at the Raven field, which will add two wells to the gas production arsenal, as the UK-based giant launches an exploration endeavor at Elking off the coast of Egypt.

The drilling and completion of the two additional wells at the field, which BP operates at the West Nile Delta (WND) concession, was carried out utilizing Valaris’ DS-12 drillship, which the oil major hired in November 2022 on a four-well contract for work offshore Egypt. The drilling assignment was expected to start late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter of 2023 and last around 320 days.