New discovery from ‘West Manzala 2’ well is fourth in a row for Company

Dana Gas, the Middle East’s first and largest regional private sector natural gas company, has made its second gas discovery of 2009 in the West Manzala Concession in the Nile Delta region of Egypt. The discovery, named West Manzala-2 (Haggag prospect), has encountered approximately 20 billion cubic feet (bcf) of dry gas. The new well, which was spudded on January 18, is located a few hundred meters away from the gas sales pipeline leading from the company’s South Manzala gas processing facility.

Dana Gas’ Upstream Executive Director Mr. Ahmed Al-Arbeed, said that the company is very pleased with this latest success and will continue its aggressive drilling plan in Egypt in the year 2009. “The company has now had four gas discoveries in the last few months and we will continue with this fruitful exploration campaign,”

Al Arbeed said that the production from this discovery is expected to start during the second quarter of 2009. “This discovery can be brought on stream very rapidly as it is situated near the gas pipeline, which transports gas to the company’s South El Manzala gas processing facility. Drilling of additional appraisal and production wells within the Haggag prospect is also being considered,” he said.

The West Manzala-2 well (Haggag prospect), which was drilled to a total depth of 1,510 meters in the Kafr El Sheikh formation of Pliocene age, penetrated a total of 13 meters of net gas pay with two separate good quality sandstone zones of 8 and 5 meters thickness respectively. The production test, performed in the lower sand only, flowed 11 million standard cubic feet of dry gas through a 32/64” choke.

Dana Gas ended 2008 with a daily production rate from its Egyptian operations of 31,640 barrels of oil equivalent (boe). This most recent discovery follows the discoveries at El Basant and Salma adding reserves of up to 380Bcf  of gas plus associated liquids.

(Dana Gas Press Release)