Egypt’s Petroleum Minister Increases Purchase Price of Gas From New Developments

Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sherif Ismail signed a deal to increase by 40% the purchase price of gas extracted from onshore Nile Delta Disouq.

‘Under the agreement, the purchase price of the new extracted gas was raised from $2.50 per million British thermal units to $ 3.50 per million British thermal units’ reads a note realised on Monday.  

In this way, Egypt expects to support natural gas production rates, which are expected to jump from 145 million cubic feet per day to 210 million cubic feet by the summer of 2015. The Ministry expects an additional rise in the following 12 months, with production rates seen at 300 million cubic feet per day by the summer of 2016. 

‘It’ s worth mentioning that, by signing this agreement, the number of petroleum agreements signed up since November 2013 till now are  56 agreements with investments exceeding $ 12 billion.’ 

As a consequence, RWE Dea has pledged to raise production.

Last week, DEA Egypt elected Hans-Hermann Ecke new General Manager.

“With our Disouq natural gas project, we have recently been able to more than double our oil and gas production in Egypt. Being the operator, we are working intensively on the further development of this project” he commented on that occasion.

According to BG Group, the London-based company will receive US$3.95 per million British thermal unit (btu) for natural gas from new developments in Egypt, up from its previous terms of $2.65 per million btu. 

The North African country holds an estimated 77 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven natural gas reserves, up 30.5 per cent from 2010, according to the US Energy Information Administration. 

Amid growing tensions in North Africa, Egypt is trying to mitigate risks stemming from Libya.