Dana Gas, Sharjah, said its core operations in Egypt’s Nile Delta and its Egyptian Bahrain Gas Derivatives Co. gas processing plant in Ras Shukheir have remained stable during recent unrest in Egypt and moreover that the company has achieved record gas production of 200 MMscfd equivalent including more than 8,000 b/d of natural gas liquids.
That production level is 29% higher than the 2012 average and is the highest level for the company in Egypt in 2 years, augmented by the drilling and testing of three development wells in the last 6 months. Meanwhile, the company is laying a pipeline to connect new discoveries to its El Wastani plant.
Dana Gas added that it is in discussions with Egyptian authorities on capital spending plans aimed at further increasing production and at resolving the issue of outstanding payments. This is in line with the Egyptian government’s efforts to increase hydrocarbon production to benefit the local population.
Several projects are ready to be executed in order to further raise the production to a level around 50,000 boe/d soon from the current 41,500 boe/d. These projects include multiwell appraisal drilling programs, adding gas compression facilities for El Basant field, and a new pipeline to link the Salma and Tulip discoveries to the El Wastani plant. Investments in these important projects can be expedited following the successful resolution of the issue pertaining to long-pending receivables, which are now in the order of $270 million.
Having become Egypt’s sixth largest gas producer in the last 6 years, Dana Gas in June 2013 made its 25th discovery with the Begonia-1 well in the Nile Delta. The company has invested $2 billion in Egypt of which a large portion has been assigned to local contractors. The cumulative gross production of Dana Gas in Egypt is 83 million bbl of oil equivalent, and the company's activities have generated $4 billion in direct incremental value for the Egyptian economy.
In Egypt Dana Gas operates and produces from 12 fields, mainly in the Nile Delta, and is a minority partner in an LPG extraction plant on the Gulf of Suez. Dana Gas, which also has operations in the United Arab Emirates and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, said its companywide output averaged 61,700 boe/d in this year’s second quarter.
