A press release to Egypt Oil&Gas stated that Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, attended the general assembly of the Egyptian Nature Gas Holding Company (EGAS) and reviewed the company’s budget for fiscal year 2017/2018.

El Molla stated that the current fiscal year will witness an increase the production of natural gas due to the development of fields. The ministry aims to increase production in light of the country’s vision to secure energy needs.

EGAS’ CEO, Mohamed Al Masry, stated that during the first half of fiscal year 2016/2017, the company signed four exploration agreements to search for gas in the Mediterranean Sea with total investments of at least $306m in addition to $10.5m signing bonus to drill eight exploratory wells. Al Masry added that the company’s drilling plans for the Mediterranean and Delta Nile achieved a 75% success rate, which increased daily production from around 3.9bcf/d of gas to 4.5bcf/d. Furthermore, EGAS finalized the first phase of the gas pipeline meant to pump gas to Beni Suef, New Capital, and Burullus power plants.

Al Masry pointed out that fiscal year 2017/2018 will witness the first production of a number of gas fields including North Alexandria, Zohr, and Atoll. He added that Nooros field’s production had increased to 900mcf/d of gas.

Additionally, EGAS plans to execute five projects that aim to increase gas production froom several fields including Petro-Shorouk, Atoll, and Phase of Desouk Concession as well as phase B9 of Burullus and Begonia project in Al Wastani fields in Delta. The Begonia project has initial estimated production at 1.5bcf/d of gas and 11,300b/d of condensates through drilling 26 wells with $9.9b in investments. The production rates are expected to reach 5.85bcf/d of gas and 82,000b/d of condensates.