Eni Discovers Gas in Bashrush Prospect, Off the Coast of Egypt

Eni SpA E recently announced offshore gas discovery in the Mediterranean Sea. The discovery has been made in the first exploration well in the North El Hammad concession. The prospect is named Bashrush, located off the coast of Egypt’s Nile Delta.

The integrated energy player believes that the new finding of a single 152-meter-thick gas column in the well has extremely good petrophysical properties. The exploratory well is being tested by Eni for production. To fast-track production activities, the company will also weigh the development options.

Notably, in the North El Hammad license, containing the Bashrush prospect, the Italian energy company holds an operating interest of 37.5%. British energy giant BP plc BP and France’s TOTAL S.A. TOT have a 37.5% and 25% stake, respectively.

Eni added that it will continue to explore the prolific Nooros field along with developing the new discovery. In the Nooros field, the company plans to drill another exploration well – Nidoco NW-1 DIR – later in 2020.

The company revealed that the latest discovery signifies the effectiveness of new exploration strategies. The objective is to find potential prospects and to fast-track development activities of the new findings through the existing infrastructures.

Importantly, the new gas discovery has strengthened the company’s upstream portfolio to capitalize the mounting demand for clean energy across the world.

Eni SpA Price

Eni SpA price | Eni SpA Quote

However, the short-term outlook for the company’s upstream business is likely to be unfavorable since the coronavirus pandemic has dented global energy demand. Eni currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Meanwhile, a better-ranked player in the energy space is QEP Resources, Inc. QEP, with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

QEP Resources has witnessed upward earnings estimate revisions for 2020 in the past 30 days.

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