The confirmation of the reserves follows the successful completion of the Sienna-2 appraisal well. It was the most northerly well drilled so far in the concession, and BG says it confirms the northern extension of the Sienna reservoir. Some 700 million cubic feet a day of gas from the Simian/Sienna field is to be piped to Idku for the first LNG train. Contracts for the development of the field are scheduled to be awarded in the third quarter of 2002 (MEED 15:3:02).

The announcement of the Sienna-2 drilling did not include a figure for the reserves estimate. However, BG executive vice-president for the East Mediterranean Martin Houston told MEED in February that the company had identified reserves of some 13 trillion cubic feet (tcf) in the concession (MEED 1:3:02, Cover Story).

The LNG project is being carried out by Egyptian LNG, in which BG and Edison each hold 35.5 per cent stakes. The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporationand Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas)each hold 12 per cent, and Gaz de France (GdF)holds the remaining 5 per cent. A separate company with the identical shareholding structure is being formed to carry out the first-train project. GdF has agreed to purchase the entire output of this train, which is scheduled to start up in mid 2005 at 3.6 million tonnes a year.