The British Petroleum (BP) company aims to increase gas production in Egypt by about 160 million cubic feet per day from two wells in the King Mariout and Fayoum concession areas within the deep waters of the Mediterranean Sea in the second half of 2025, according to a government official who spoke to Asharq Business.
Boosting gas production in Egypt would alleviate the pressure on the government to import liquefied gas to bridge the gap between supply and demand, which especially rises in the summer during which the country suffered from power outages in 2024 which even impacted the industrial sector.
Egypt’s natural gas production has decreased to 4.35 billion cubic feet per day, while daily needs are about 6.2 billion cubic feet.
The official, who asked not to be named, said that BP is currently completing the drilling of the two exploratory wells in the “King Mariout 2” and “Fayoum 5” areas with an estimated production capacity of up to 80 million cubic feet of gas per well, within the North Alexandria concession area, to determine the actual reserves that can be produced, a process that is scheduled to be completed by next April.
The cost of drilling a single well in the North Alexandria concession area in the deep waters of the Mediterranean is estimated at about $150 million, according to the official.
The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum did not respond to requests from Asharq Business for comment.
The Egyptian government intends to import between 155-160 shipments of liquefied gas this year in to bridge the gap between the actual need of the local market and local production.
Egypt presented foreign companies at the end of 2024 with new incentives to increase natural gas production.
These consist of allowing the export of a certain share of the new production, so that its revenues are used to pay the required dues, in addition to raising the price of these companies’ share of the new gas production from any of their fields.
