The British company BP will begin drilling two new natural gas wells in the West Delta region of the Mediterranean in Egypt next January with investments amounting to $160 million, according to a government official who spoke with Al-Sharq on condition of anonymity.
Egypt has provided foreign companies with new incentives to increase gas production, represented by allowing the export of a certain share of the new production, so that its revenues can be used to pay the required dues, in addition to raising the price of these companies’ share of the new gas production.
The government official said that the drilling process comes within the company's plan to drill new wells with the aim of exploring new natural gas-bearing layers in the West Delta region, so that they can be quickly introduced to production facilities if economic gas reserves are available.
This comes after an agreement with Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Karim Badawi to accelerate the drilling of the two wells in the “Raven” field and link them to production, in exchange for the Egyptian government’s commitment to pay BP’s dues according to the agreed upon schedule.
The official added that the excavator has now arrived at the operations site to begin drilling early next year.
Egypt's daily needs of natural gas amount to 6.2 billion cubic feet per day, while its daily production reaches about 4.6 billion cubic feet.
The government aims to increase natural gas production by the end of this year to about 5 billion cubic feet per day.
Related news
