File Photo: Offshore work in the West Nile Delta, Egypt. Photo courtesy of BP.
The Fayoum well was discovered during a 2025 BP exploration campaign in the West Nile Delta, a group of gas fields located in Egyptian territorial waters within the North Alexandria and West Mediterranean Deepwater concessions.
BP operates the West Nile Delta facilities with an 82.75 percent stake. Britain's Harbour Energy holds the remaining 17.25 percent.
BP connected the well to existing processing facilities in the West Nile Delta, via the Giza-Fayoum pipeline, utilizing engineering solutions that accelerated domestic natural gas production at a lower cost. In July, BP drilled a bypass, which could reach depths of more than 3,000 metres, to restart production at the well without drilling a separate new well.
The new undertaking comes as the regional war pushes up gas prices and shipping and insurance costs, straining Egypt's import bill. The conflict with Iran doubled the cost of imported liquefied natural gas cargoes for Egypt to around $80 million, up from around $40 million before the fighting began.
Egypt's oil trade deficit widened by $2.8 billion to $13.1 billion during the first nine months of FY2025/2026, compared with $10.3 billion a year earlier, driven by higher oil imports.
The country’s oil imports rose to $17.3 billion from $14.5 billion, as natural gas imports alone surged by $2.6 billion during the same period, which ended one month after the start of the conflict. Meanwhile, oil exports edged up by $55 million to $4.22 billion from $4.17 billion, supported by a $234.1 million increase in exports of natural gas products.
The project is part of Egypt's five-year strategy to drill more than 100 exploratory oil and gas wells in 2026 and more than 480 wells across all petroleum-producing areas.
It also aligns with the petroleum ministry’s strategy of increasing Egypt’s domestic gas and oil production, expediting field development, as well as integrating discoveries and well connections into the national grid, as the country seeks to establish itself as a regional energy hub and meet growing fuel demand.
Egypt has been relying on gas imports to reduce the gap between its domestic production and consumption, especially during the summer months as electricity demand rises.
Domestic natural gas consumption rose by around 12 percent during the summer, reaching around 7.28 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) in July and August 2026, compared with 6.45 bcf/d between October 2025 and March 2026.
As of mid 2026, Egypt’s natural gas production stood at 3.7 bcf/d, on the back of arrear payments to foreign oil partners helped curb the output decline. Production is expected to increase during the current fiscal year 2026/2027 to around 4.2 bcf/d.
In 2023, BP earmarked $3.5 billion for gas exploration projects in Egypt across the next three years and said it would drill five new gas wells in the Mediterranean using existing infrastructure in the West Nile Delta.
BP has also invested more than $35 billion in Egypt's energy sector over the past 60 years, making the country one of the company's largest investment destinations.
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