Egypt boosts gas production with two new West Delta Wells

Egypt's Petroleum Ministry announced on Friday that the two deepwater West Delta wells have been brought online. This will add about 60 million cubic foot per day (mcfd), of natural gas, to Egypt's production.

Egypt is looking to increase gas production to meet the domestic demand after increasing reliance on imports.

The West Delta's new output includes 50 mcfd of gas from the Sapphire South Central DP, the third well drilled as part of phase 11 West Delta Deep Marine Development with Shell investment, and 10 mcfd produced by the Scarab D4 after it was brought back online.

Egypt, a former regional gas exporter, now imports some of its gas due to its declining production. This is mainly because of aging fields, and the lack of investment into new fields. According to the Joint Organisations Data Initiative, which measures oil production and gas, Egypt's production of gas in May was 3,545 million cubic meters, down by more than 40% compared to March 2021.

The Egyptian Petroleum Ministry announced on Tuesday that three new wells are being drilled in order to increase production at the country's biggest gas field in the Mediterranean. Another well has been connected to the production, adding 65 mcfd per day to the national supply.

By early 2024, the ministry reported that Zohr had dropped its production to 1.9 billion cubic feet per day. This is a significant drop from the peak of 2019. The ministry did not provide current production figures.

Egypt signed an agreement this month with Israel's Leviathan Field Partners for a $35 billion record gas import. (Reporting and editing by Mohamed Ezz, Ahmed Elimam)

(source: Reuters)