Egypt Adds 60 Million Cubic Feet of Natural Gas to Production

Gas Field Offshore Egypt                                                                

Egypt Increases Gas Production with Operation of Two New Wells in the West Delta

The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum announced on Friday that production has begun from two new deep-water wells in the West Delta, adding approximately 60 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to the country's production.

The ministry posted a statement on its Facebook page, saying: "The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources announced the success of Burullus Gas Company in adding two new wells in the Mediterranean Sea in the deep West Delta region to the natural gas production map, with a total production of up to 60 million cubic feet per day." Egypt is seeking to boost gas production after increasingly resorting to imports to meet domestic demand. The ministry's statement stated that the move was "to boost local production to help meet the needs of the local market during the peak summer consumption," according to Reuters.

The statement added that new production from the Sapphire South Central DB well, the third well in the eleventh phase of the West Nile Delta Deepwater Project, has begun... with approximately 50 million cubic feet of gas per day, noting that this was achieved with investments from Shell. The statement added: "The company was also able to restore production from the Scarp D4 well after a long hiatus, adding approximately ten million cubic feet per day."

Egypt, once a regional gas exporter, is forced to import some of its gas needs due to declining production due to aging fields and a lack of investment in new fields. According to the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI), Egypt's gas production in May reached 3,545 million cubic meters, a decrease of more than 40% compared to March 2021.

Egyptian Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi said that efforts are continuing to drill new wells in the Zohr gas field in the Mediterranean Sea. The ministry said that production from the Zohr field, the largest gas field discovered in the Mediterranean, declined to 1.9 billion cubic feet per day in early 2024, significantly lower than its peak in 2019. The ministry did not provide data on current production.