Production from Atoll gas field reaches 350M cfd

CAIRO – 15 April 2018: Production from Atoll gas field, which lies in the North Damietta concession in the East Nile Delta, increased by some 50 million cubic feet of gas a day (cfd) since it started production to stand at 350 million cfd, a source in the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) said on Sunday.

British Petroleum (PB) announced in February the start of gas production from the Atoll Phase One project seven months ahead of schedule.

The Atoll gas field is considered one of the major discoveries in the petroleum field in recent years. The field has gas reserves of 1.5 trillion cubic feet of gas and 31 million barrels of condensates, according to the petroleum ministry.

Petroleum Minister Tarek el-Molla said earlier that the ministry aims to cooperate with foreign companies operating in Egypt to accelerate the development of the discovered gas fields in the Mediterranean to achieve Egypt’s goal of increasing gas production.

Atoll was discovered by BP in March 2015, with the first phase involving almost $1 billion investment.

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.

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

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 six 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.