The crude oil reservoir Ras Budran is located in the Gulf of Suez, four kilometres off the coast of Sinai, and was discovered in the mid-1970s. To develop the field, SUCO was founded as a joint venture between RWE Dea as operator and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC). Production commenced here in 1983 with some 60,000 barrels/day. By now a total of about 267 million barrels of crude have been produced, supplemented by a further 6.000 barrels each day. The total production from Ras Budran and the oilfields Zeit Bay and Ras Fanar amounts to six million barrels per annum.
Investment planned
“Our successful production from these fields, continually upgraded to meet state-of-the-art technology, we managed to contribute to keeping our crude oil production in Egypt at a high level”, explained Thomas Rappuhn, member of the Board of Management of RWE Dea. In the past thirty years, the joint venture partners invested some 3.2 billion US dollars in developing the Ras Budran, Zeit Bay and Ras Fanar fields. This makes RWE Dea one of the biggest German investors in the country. Only last year were the production concessions for the oil production areas in the Gulf of Suez renewed by a further ten years, with additional capital spending being earmarked for further development. “Our efficient oil production from these fields provides us with a continual cash flow that we can reinvest in promising natural gas projects in Egypt, for instance”, said Hans-Hermann Andreae, General Manger of RWE Dea in Egypt. This made it possible to stabilise production from the Zeit Bay crude oil field with additional widely deviated wells being drilled from onshore. The company recently announced the discovery of a natural gas and condensate field in the onshore concession Disouq. The launch of the offshore gas field development in the North Idku concession, in turn, is the first step taken so far to develop the gas reserves discovered by the company in the Nile delta both as operator and partner. In 2008 alone, RWE Dea plans to spend some 440 million US dollars on exploration and production activities in Egypt.
Social commitment
RWE Dea’s operating activities are accompanied by social responsibility of the company in Egypt. For instance, RWE Dea has supported many and various social projects for years now. At present, RWE Dea is supporting schools in the region of Greater Cairo in renovating school buildings and equipping them with such important items as blackboards and desks. By improving the learning environment, RWE Dea plans to contribute towards optimising education and the quality of life for Egyptian schoolchildren.
RWE Dea has already been engaged in Egypt since 1974 and has now been producing oil as operator in the Gulf of Suez for 25 years now. In addition, the company is engaged as operator and partner in exploration and production of oil and gas in sites located in the Nile Delta and onshore in the Western Desert region. RWE Dea has a total of 15 onshore and offshore concessions in Egypt, across a total area of roughly 15,500 square kilometres.
Background information
RWE Dea AG, headquartered in Hamburg, is an international company operating in the field of exploration and production of natural gas and petroleum. The company deploys state-of-the-art drilling and production technologies and puts its many years’ experience acquired to good use in its activities. RWE Dea has set new standards in the fields of safety and environmental protection.
RWE Dea has stakes in production facilities and concessions in Germany, the UK, Norway, Denmark and Egypt and holds exploration concessions in Algeria, Libya and Poland. Moreover, in Germany RWE Dea also operates large subterranean storage facilities for natural gas. RWE Dea is part of the RWE Group, one of Europe’s largest energy utilities.
(RWE Press Release)
