The Ministry of Petroleum said Tuesday that Apache, working with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, had made a new natural gas discovery in Egypt’s Western Desert, with initial well tests showing expected output of about 26 million cubic feet of gas a day and 2,700 barrels of condensates.
The find comes as Egypt faces a winter gas shortfall of about 2 billion cubic feet a day. Domestic production stands at about 4.2 billion cubic feet a day, against consumption of between 6.2 billion and 6.3 billion cubic feet a day.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said the discovery reflected the success of government incentives that had encouraged Apache to expand exploration activities and increase its investments, especially in new areas adjacent to its existing concessions.
The ministry’s statement said the discovery was made at the exploratory well SKAL-1X in South Kalabsha, one of the areas recently awarded to Apache and close to the company’s current operating areas. It said the location would improve development economics and lower costs by taking advantage of existing infrastructure and production facilities.
It said that would help speed up development work and bring new discoveries into production as quickly as possible, supporting efforts to offset the natural decline in output from older fields while reducing capital spending.
In 2019, Zohr helped Egypt achieve a trade surplus on the back of higher domestic production. Since 2023, however, domestic output has fallen, alongside reports that production at Zohr is also declining. Analysts suggested that delays in payments owed to Eni, which discovered the field, may have pushed the company to slow production as a way to pressure decision-makers.
Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi said on Saturday that outstanding arrears have been reduced from around $6.1 billion in June 2024 to approximately $1.3 billion today, with full settlement now on track ahead of a June 30 deadline.
On Aug. 12 last year, Egypt amended its agreement to import Israeli gas, adding 130 billion cubic meters to the contracted volumes, raising the expected revenue for Tel Aviv to $35 billion, and extending the supply period until 2040.
But at the end of February, Israel halted natural gas flows to Egypt indefinitely, in parallel with the joint assault by Tel Aviv and Washington on Tehran. Israel’s Energy Ministry then announced in mid-March that supplies had resumed on a limited scale of about 50 million cubic feet a day, versus 1 billion cubic feet under normal conditions.
Condensates are light liquid hydrocarbons used as feedstock in oil refineries to produce gasoline, jet fuel, diesel and heating fuel. They are also used to dilute heavy, highly viscous oils that cannot be transported efficiently through pipelines.
