bp to evaluate five-well programme offshore Egypt

bp has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to evaluate opportunities for a five-well programme at water depth ranging from 300 to 1,500 meters in the Mediterranean Sea 

This will help plan the development of national gas reserves to optimise existing production facilities in the West Nile Delta. As the company aims to begin drilling operations in 2026, there are plans to explore the possibility of tie-back options after considering resource potential. 

The MoU was signed during the visit of Karim Badawi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources; Ashraf Swelam, Egypt’s Ambassador to the UK, and Samir Raslan, Undersecretary for Exploration and Agreements at the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, to bp’s headquarters in London.

The delegation met with Murray Auchincloss, bp’s chief executive officer; William Lin, executive vice president for gas and low carbon energy; Nader Zaki, regional president, Middle East and North Africa; and Wail Shaheen, president of bp Egypt.

“Today’s announcement reaffirms our commitment to supporting investment in Egypt’s gas sector.  We appreciate the continued engagement and support from HE Minister Karim Badawi.  We look forward to applying bp’s technological expertise to build on our recent exploration and development momentum to bring on new gas resources and accelerated production for the country as well as deliver value for our business,” said Lin.

Zaki added,“We are proud of our longstanding partnership with the Egyptian government. This memorandum represents a strategic step in our investments in Egypt’s energy sector during this decade, enabling us to develop additional gas resources in the West Nile Delta and bring them onstream as quickly as possible to meet the needs of the local market.”

The agreement comes as bp plans to increase production to 2.3-2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2030 with the capacity to increase production out to 2035. It follows a successful exploration campaign in the first half of 2025 in which bp has made 10 discoveries including two in Egypt, where it completed drilling activity at the Fayoum-5 gas discovery well and El King-2 exploration well, both part of the West Nile Delta development.