Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tariq al-Mulla said that Egypt has many opportunities to support the growth of gas production in the near and medium-terms, in light of planned development projects, especially in the Mediterranean Sea. He added that 16 projects with a total investment estimated at over $25 billion are being planned to be implemented in the Mediterranean over the coming four years.
During the last four years, the oil sector has succeeded in implementing 24 projects with a total investment of $2.16 billion, with a total daily production of approximately 1.4 billion cubic feet of gas and 36,000 barrels of condensates.
Mulla pointed out that the Zohr gas field, in addition to the fields of Atoll, Noras, and the West Nile Delta, were the most prominent projects that recently made a major contribution to increasing gas production.
Egypt continues to work on increasing Zohr gas production until it reaches its peak production of 7.2 billion cubic feet per day.
Meanwhile, the second stage of the West Nile Delta fields (north of Alexandria and the western Mediterranean), which include the fields of Giza, Fayoum and Raven, will start production as of the end of this year, according to Mulla.
The total production of the two phases of the North Alexandria fields project will increase gradually to 6.1 billion cubic feet of gas per day, Mulla continued.
He expected Egypt will achieve self-sufficiency in gas production by the end of 2018, and will stop importing liquefied gas.
The first three wells of the 9B phase of the project West Delta in the deep Mediterranean waters will start production in collaboration with the petroleum giant ‘Shell’ during the 2018/19 fiscal year.
The ministry also plans to start the development of other natural gas fields in the Mediterranean, such as Salamat, Hedwa, and others, over the next few years to support gas production, Mulla said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
