Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El-Molla, said that 35 new gas wells will be drilled in 2024-2025 with an investment of more than $1.5 billion to increase production and reserves, the newspaper writes. Egypt Today, quoted by News.ro.
The new measure comes after the drilling of 10 wells, completed in 2022-2023, led to a series of discoveries, the most important of which was the discovery of the Nargis block in the Mediterranean, with reserves of approximately 2.5 trillion cubic meters of gas.
El-Molla also addressed the development of natural gas exploration, explaining that a plan to drill 45 natural gas wells in the Mediterranean Sea and the Delta is underway, with an investment of nearly $1.9 billion.
The oil minister announced that the results of the international tender for the search for natural gas in 12 coastal and offshore areas of the Mediterranean Sea and the delta, which will end at the end of July, are being evaluated. El-Molla also said that British Petroleum (BP) plans to drill four new gas exploration wells in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Two wells will be drilled on the Raven gas condensate field in the North Alexandria and Western Mediterranean, while a further two will be drilled on the King Mariout offshore concession in the Western Mediterranean.
Egypt is trying to become a regional center in the liquefied gas market
Earlier this summer, Egypt’s government was forced to ration electricity consumption due to a heat wave that hit North Africa, as well as other areas around the Mediterranean Sea and the rest of the world.
Egypt has a surplus of electricity after rapidly expanding its generation capacity over the past decade, but demand for electricity, which is mostly met by natural gas, spikes in the summer when people use air conditioners.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly confirmed on July 19 that authorities had begun reducing the load on the system through planned outages after pressure in the gas network dropped due to high consumption.
His government has been trying to reduce natural gas consumption since last year in order to be able to export more and earn much-needed foreign currency.
The African country became self-sufficient in natural gas consumption 5 years ago and is trying to become a regional energy hub for liquefied gas.
Source: Hot News
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