The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources announced 10 new exploration wells in the Western Desert in the East Bahareya Extended Area 3, with an average daily production of 5,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), Egypt Oil & Gas reports.

This was announced as Ashraf Abdul Jawad, Head of Qarun Petroleum Company, presented to Tarek El Molla, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, the company’s achievements for fiscal year (FY) 2018/2019, showing that production from the new exploration wells represent 16% of Qarun’s production.

Jawad explained that the company’s proven reserves increased by about 24 million barrels as a result of the new exploration wells, which reached a total of 69 million barrels by the end of FY 2018/2019. He pointed out that the company’s current daily production rate reached 31,700 boe/d and the total investments amounted to about $182 million.

Jawad added that based on the explorations, the company is currently working with partners to develop an ambitious plan with an investment cost of $237 million for FY 2019/2020.

The investment cost exceeds that of the last three years, as the new discoveries are aimed to attract international oil companies (IOCs) and encourage them to intensify their exploration and production, which shall contribute to increasing oil and gas reserves and production and open new horizons to achieve more promising discoveries.