Dana Gas PJSC has received around $48 million from its operations in Egypt in June 2019, of which $38 million are obtained from the Egyptian government and the remaining $10 million are from selling the second El Wastani condensate shipment in 2019, Dana Gas announced on June 29.

“Receiving $38 million from the Egyptian Government in June shows steady progress for the Government in achieving its target of paying all the overdue receivables by year-end. These payments will provide funds to execute our current onshore work-over program and contribute towards the costs of drilling Merak-1, our deep-water exploration well in Block 6. Drilling operations are progressing well, and we are expecting to have results in the third quarter this year,” Patrick Allman-Ward, Dana Gas CEO, commented.

In 2018, Dana Gas received around $208 million, cutting its arrears to around $140 million by the end of 2019. Moreover, during H1 2019, the company received around $78 million, which further reduced the arrears by 38% to reach $125 million.

This comes in line with the government’s immense efforts to cut its arrears as Egypt has successfully decreased foreign partners’ arrears by more than 80% between 2012 and 2018, according to the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla.

Dana Gas began on May 20 drilling at Merak-1 well, which is located in 755 meters of water in North El Arish concession (Block 6).