Fayoum, Giza gas fields to start production before year-end

CAIRO – 7 March 2018: Petroleum Minister Tarek el-Molla followed up Wednesday on the second phase involving the development of Fayoum and Giza gas fields located within the North Alexandria and West Mediterranean Deepwater concessions in the Mediterranean sea, approximately 65km to 85km off the coast of Alexandria.

The two fields are expected to start production before the end of 2018, with a daily output of 500-700 million cubic feet.

This came during the ninth regular meeting of the Joint High Committee for the West Nile Delta Gas Project, chaired by Molla.

Molla stressed on the importance of cooperation between companies working on the project to complete it within the scheduled timeline, the matter that will boost Egypt’s gas production and help in meeting domestic demand.

The meeting also discussed the development works of Raven gas field, which is set to produce 350 million cubic feet per day.

The West Nile Delta development includes five offshore gas fields which are planned to have in 2019 a combined production of up to almost 1.5 billion cubic feet a day.

Construction of the project started in February 2017 and production from the first two fields Taurus and Libra started in May 2017. The first gas was delivered to the national grid ahead of schedule in March 2017.

The project is being developed in phases. The first phase involves the development of five major fields namely Taurus, Libra, Giza, Fayoum and Raven. The Maadi, Viper, Ruby, Polaris and Hodoa discoveries will be developed in later phases.

British Petroleum (BP) is the operator of the project, holding a 60 percent interest in the North Alexandria concession and 80 percent interest in the West Mediterranean Deepwater concession.

Egypt’s production of natural gas increased in December 2017 to reach 3.4 million tons, up from 2.7 million tons in December 2016, an official source in the petroleum sector said Tuesday.

The increased production came on the back of starting production from four main fields, including the Taurus and Libra fields as well as Atoll and Zohr gas fields.

In February, Deputy Chairman of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) for production and fields’ development Mohamed Abdel Azim said that Egypt’s natural gas production will reach some six billion cubic feet a day by the end of fiscal year 2017/18.

Egypt’s gas production currently stands at 5.5 billion cubic feet a day, after adding some 1.6 million cubic feet as a result of starting production from the aforementioned projects.

The country's total natural gas consumption is about 6 billion cubic feet per day, of which roughly 65 percent goes to the electricity sector.

The new discoveries are expected to turn Egypt into a net exporter of natural gas as the country is expected to halt gas imports by mid 2018.

Egypt plans to stop importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) by the end of the 2017/18 fiscal year ending in June as it accelerates production at a number of newly-discovered gas fields, Molla said in January.