Abuqir discovers gas in Egypt

Thursday, Apr 02, 2020

Egypt’s Abuqir Petroleum, a joint venture of Italy’s Edison and the state-run Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), has made a new gas discovery in the Abu Qir concession offshore from Alexandria.

Abuqir says it struck gas along with 850 barrels of condensate a day after drilling a new well at a depth of 3,750 metres.

It says the discovery containing 1.85 million cubic metres of gas is located in the northern section of the concession where reserves are higher than originally projected.

EGPC started drilling the well, named NAQ PII-2, on 26 December 2020.

Edison started its drilling operations on 15 January 2020 following the creation of the joint venture on the same day.

Abuqir expects to carry out further surveys and well-drilling programmes in the coming months along with the construction of a new platform.

Edison acquired the exploration, production and development rights to the Abu Qir field through a 20-year production-sharing agreement with EGPC.

The Abu Qir fields currently produce about 1.5 billion cubic metres of gas and 1.5 million barrels of liquids a year.