Belayim Petroleum Company (Petrobel) Chairman Khaled Mowafy affirmed the resumption of drilling at the Zohr field after the arrival of the Saipem 10000 drilling rig in Egyptian waters to carry out drilling operations and single-track 3 wells starting with well Zohr 13, then Zohr 6, followed by Zohr 9 using the modern coiled tubing technology for the first time in the world in deep water.

During the general assembly meeting of the company attended by the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi, he added that the company succeeded in achieving 5.5 million safe working hours.

Badawi expressed his happiness with the completion of the development drilling activity in the Zohr field and working in a team spirit to restore production levels and increase them during the coming period.

He stressed the importance of developing an action plan with specific targets to increase production and confront the natural decline in well productivity, thanking the partners for their commitment and cooperation to unleash the potential to increase production, as well as their distinguished role and participation in community development projects.

Regarding Petroshrouk, Mowafy explained that $320 million has been allocated for operations, including $122 million to continue maintenance work on wells to maintain production rates, in addition to allocating part of the operating budget to carry out the necessary maintenance work on production platforms in all areas of the company.

For the production plan, the company aims to reach daily production rates to 144,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) and 434 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas during the fiscal year (FY) 2025/26. This is considered a major challenge that requires concerted efforts and focus on increasing the company’s activities.

Additionally, the plan for crude oil is to achieve a production rate of 58 barrels of oil, 4730 barrels per day of condensates and 130 tons per day of butane. The company also seeks to keep the unit cost at the lowest possible levels.

Badawi stressed the importance of accelerating the development of the achieved discoveries and placing them on the production map, pointing out the importance of providing additional drilling rigs that will help intensify operations and use artificial intelligence to identify reservoirs before starting drilling work.