GPC to drill 18 wells, produce 64k barrels of crude in 2108/19

CAIRO – 17 January 2018: The Petroleum Ministry-affiliated General Petroleum Company (GPC) plans to drill five discovery wells and 13 development wells, in addition to producing some 64,000 barrels of crude, natural gas and condensates a day during fiscal year 2018/19, a statement from the Petroleum Ministry said Wednesday.

This came during Petroleum Minister Tarek el-Molla’s meeting with the company’s general assembly to approve its budget for fiscal year 2018/19.

During the meeting, GPC Ghairman Mohsen el-Noby said that the company in FY 2017/18 had discovered two fields in the eastern desert, which are now under development.

In the western desert, meanwhile, GPC has succeeded in adding two felids to production, leading to an increase in the western fields’ production to reach 18,000 barrels of oil a day.

Egypt’s cabinet has approved four petroleum cooperation agreements in late December that aim at attracting new global investments to Egypt in the oil and gas drilling field as well as exploration domains to increase the country's oil and natural gas reserves.

Under the four deals, around 17 wells will be dug with total investments worth $230million.

Egypt aspires to become a regional energy hub, benefiting from its strategic location straddling the Suez Canal and the land bridge between Asia and Africa.

Italy’s Eni delivered last month the first gas from Egypt’s giant offshore Zohr field, whose estimated 30 trillion cubic feet (tfc).