The Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, received a report stating the achievements in the exploration and production (E&P) activities in July-September of the current fiscal year (FY) 2019/20, according to a press release.

According to the report, three new agreements were signed, two of which are for the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) in Southeast Abu Sennan and Southeast Ras Qattara in the Western Desert, with minimum investments of around $4 million. In addition to drilling four wells and another agreement of the General Petroleum Company (GPC) in the Kheir region in the Eastern Desert.

Furthermore, six development agreements were signed in South Disouq, East Bahariya, Khalda, West Kanayess, and North Salhia, with signature bonus of around $2 million.

It is important to note the procedures taken to issue 25 oil commitment agreements, with total non-refundable signature bonus of over $281 million and minimum investments of around $2.43 billion, in addition to drilling 25 wells.

Additionally, the report stated that 14 new discoveries, four natural gas and 10 crude oil, were made in the Western Desert, the Eastern Desert, the Gulf of Suez, the Nile Delta, and the Mediterranean Sea.

As a result of putting natural gas development projects in Zohr field, Southwest Baltim, North Alexandria, and Phase B in Disouq on production, sold gas has increased by 6%, compared to the same period a year before, reaching 13 million tons. In addition, the production of crude oil, condensates, and butane reached around 8 million tons.

For Belayim Petroleum Company (Petrobel)’s development project in Zohr field, production rates in the field recorded around 2.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) in August, through establishing and operating three facilitating units. The third phase is under progress to increase production to 3 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d).

The development project of Petrobel in Southwest Baltim aims to establish needed facilities to take in the project’s capacity of around 500 mmcf/d of natural gas through drilling six wells in the region. It is noteworthy that the project’s execution was done in August and production commenced in September by linking Southwest Baltim-1 well on production with initial rates of around 70 mmcf/d of natural gas.

The production in the development projects in North Sinai commenced through linking the first well on production in July, with initial production rates of around 25 mmcf/d and the second well in August, with initial rates of around 20 mmcf/d.

Moreover, Phase B in Disouq’s development project aims to produce around 80 mmcf/d of natural gas by linking nine wells to production, with a cost of around $30 million. All wells were linked to production in August.

It is worth mentioning that four new natural gas wells were put on production. The production rate of natural gas after adding new development projects and wells recorded around 489 mmcf/d initially. In addition, 54 new crude oil wells were put on production, with initial production rates of around 43.9 thousand barrels per day (b/d).

The report clarified that the ministry’s executive plans, under the umbrella of the Modernization Project, have led to accelerating the implementation of different new projects, which have contributed to increasing Egyptian production and reserves of oil and gas.