The South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Company (Ganope) has launched a program to revive production wells at the Al Baraka oil field in the Kom Ombo block, Aswan Governorate,  as part of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MoPMR)’s strategy to boost domestic oil and gas production and maximize the potential of promising resources in Upper Egypt.

The program includes workover operations on existing production wells, alongside the drilling of new development and exploration wells.

To mark the launch of the program, Ganope Chairman Samir Raslan visited the Al Baraka field, accompanied by Mahmoud Tolba, Chairman and Managing Director of Kom Ombo Petroleum Company (KOPCO), and senior officials from both companies. The visit followed the arrival of a new drilling and workover rig at the site, allowing the officials to inspect the equipment’s readiness and review the execution plan in line with the project’s scheduled timeline.

The program is being implemented in cooperation with Mediterra Energy, the Canadian investment partner in the concession area. It aims to inject new investments to support field development through a workover campaign for several producing wells, in addition to drilling two new wells in the first phase, with the possibility of expanding the drilling program based on technical studies and operational results.

Raslan said the launch of the program marks an important step toward restoring production from the Al Baraka field and unlocking the petroleum potential of the Kom Ombo area. He added that Ganope is prioritizing the accelerated implementation of drilling and development plans to maximize domestic production and ensure the optimal utilization of Egypt’s petroleum resources.

Discovered in 2007 as the first oil find in Upper Egypt, the Al Baraka field has struggled with severe depletion and declining productivity over the years. The current initiative marks a major strategic effort to revive these idle and underperforming assets.

Preliminary production amounted to around 150 barrels per day (bbl/d) and rose to 900 barrels per day (bbl/d) of light crude oil in 2011, heavily relying on expensive technologies like hydraulic fracturing to pump oil out of dense, tight sandstone layers.