British oil major BP will begin gas production at its North Alexandria concession offshore Egypt early in 2017
The announcement was made by Egypt’s petroleum minister, Tarek El Molla, at a news conference recently. Earlier, the company had said it would start production from the field in West Nile Delta (WND) in mid-2017.
El Molla said that the concession’s output will be approximately 450 mcfd in 2017 and reach 1.2 bcfday by the end of 2019. The output from this concession will give a significant boost to Egypt’s gas production. The country has been searching for ways to tackle severe energy shortages that have affected economic growth by slowing production at many of the country’s energy-intensive industries.
BP also announced recently that it had been awarded three new offshore exploration blocks in Egypt and that along with its partners, it had committed to an investment of US$229mn to explore them.
WND is BP’s first operated project in Egypt outside of a joint venture. The agreement to develop resources in the area covers five fields in the North Alexandria and West Mediterranean Deep Water concessions. All the gas from WND will go into the national gas grid, helping to meet Egypt’s projected growth in demand. This large-scale development is also set to create thousands of jobs during its construction phase.
Egyptian authorities have recently improved terms for foreign oil and gas businesses to attract investment in the energy-hungry country. Once an energy exporter, falling production and rising energy consumption in Egypt have made it a net energy importer.
