Egypt Achieves 800 Oil And Gas Discoveries In 15 Years - HOW AFRICA

5 April 2018

Egypt’s Petroleum Ministry achieved around 800 new oil and gas discoveries starting fiscal year (FY) 2001/02 and until 2015/16. During this period, the ministry achieved 520 crude oil discoveries, according to figures from state statistics agency CAPMAS.

Fiscal years 2011/12 and 2012/13 saw the largest crude oil discoveries, with an average of 57 discoveries each year, followed by FY 2013/14 with an average of 41 discoveries.
In its recently launched report “Egypt in Figures 2018”, CAPMAS showed that FY 2015/16 saw the smallest amount of discoveries.

As for gas discoveries, fiscal years 2007/08 and 2012/13 saw the biggest gas discoveries, realizing 26 and 29 discoveries respectively.

The giant offshore Zohr gas field is one of the most significant gas discoveries in Egypt and the Mediterranean region.

Discovered by Italian energy company ENI in 2015, Zohr gas field has an area of 100 square meters and a depth of 1,450 meters.

Eni in December delivered the first gas from Zohr field, whose estimated 30 trillion cubic feet (tfc) makes it the biggest gas field in the Mediterranean.

Exclusive - Italy's Edison launches spin-off of oil & gas unit: sources - REUTERS

APRIL 4, 2018 / 3:17 PM
Clara Denina, Ron Bousso

LONDON (Reuters) - Italian energy group Edison (EDNn.MI), part of French utility EDF (EDF.PA), is preparing the sale of its oil and gas unit, the latest power producer to abandon fossil fuels to focus on its retail business, four industry sources said.

Edison has selected investment banks Rothschild (ROTH.PA) and Perella Weinberg to organise an auction for the exploration and production division, which could be valued at $2 billion (1.43 billion pounds) to $3 billion, one of the sources said.

The company has been looking to increase the size of its domestic electricity and gas retail business, betting on the market opening up to more competition, with retail energy customers increasingly able to chose their supplier.

Edison and EDF declined to comment. Rothschild declined to comment. Perella Weinberg did not respond to a request for comment.

Cyprus in talks with ENI-Total on Calypso timetable - CYPRUS MAIL

APRIL 2, 2018

Elias Hazou

The government is in talks with the consortium of ENI-Total regarding their timetable for an appraisal, or follow-up drill at the Calypso gas prospect in offshore block 6, energy minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis said on Monday.

At the same time, he added, the government is discussing with ENI the latter’s broader exploration programme in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

“ENI is a big regional player, it has concessions on several[offshore] blocks, and we are discussing with them their exploration programme,” Lakkotrypis told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Nicosia.

In February, ENI announced that it made a discovery of lean gas off the coast of Cyprus after drilling an exploratory well at Calypso. The company said it believed the gas play to hold around 6 to 8 trillion cubic feet.

UK to get LNG cargo from Egypt - LNG WORLD NEWS

LNG vessel 'Maran Gas Apollonia'

2 April 2018

The United Kingdom is expected to receive a cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Shell-operated Idku liquefaction plant in Egypt, according to the port data.

The 161,870-cbm Maran Gas Apollonia, owned by Maran Nakilat and chartered by the Hague-based LNG giant Shell, is expected to dock at the Dragon LNG import facility in the Port of Milford Haven on March 8, the port’s shipping data showed on Monday.

The LNG tanker was on Monday located in the Mediterranean Sea, according to its AIS data.

Egypt, that has two LNG export plants, Idku and Damietta, has turned a net gas importer from an exporter over the course of 2016 due to falling domestic production.

However, the rising production at newly discovered gas fields has pushed the country towards halting LNG imports sooner than it was initially anticipated and boosted the prospects for Egypt to regain net LNG exporter status again.

One of the fields that recently started production is the giant Eni-operated Zohr gas field in the Shorouk Block, offshore Egypt approximately 190 km north of Port Said.

It is the largest gas discovery ever made in Egypt and in the Mediterranean Sea, and will be able to satisfy a part of Egypt’s natural gas demand for decades to come, according to Italian energy giant Eni.

Production from Zohr gas field to reach 1.8B cfd in September - EGYPT TODAY

Sun, Apr. 1, 2018

CAIRO – 1 April 2018: Egypt plans to boost production from its giant offshore Zohr gas field to 700 million cubic feet a day (cfd) in May and to 1.8 billion cfd in September, an official source in the petroleum sector said Sunday.

He said that pre-operation tests have been initiated for the field’s first and second production lines and that mechanical and electrical installations for both lines are almost complete.

The second line will start operation in June, with a capacity of 350 million cfd, while the third and fourth lines will enter production in July and August respectively, bringing total production from the field to 1.4 billion cfd.

Cabinet approves establishment of Nuweiba freezone - ENTERPRISE

Sunday, 1 April 2018

CABINET WATCH- The Ismail Cabinet approved yesterday the establishment of a freezone in Nuweiba and will offer investment incentives there including 50% tax cuts for three years. The 1 mn sqm zone is expected to see as much as USD 40 mn in infrastructure-related investment, South Sinai Governor Khaled Fouda said yesterday. The freezone is part of the government’s Sinai development strategy, which relies significantly on attracting local and Arab investors to the peninsula to spur growth, Investment Minister Sahar Nasr told reporters yesterday.

The ministers also signed off on legislation allowing the oil minister to sign oil exploration and production agreements in Ras Qattara with the EGPC, the International Egyptian Oil Company, and Croatian oil and gas company INA; in in the Gulf of Suez’s North Zaafarana concession with Zaafarana Petroleum Company, Oceaneer Zaafarana, and Sahary for Oil and Gas; and in the West Delta Deep Water Concession with Shell and PICL Egypt Corporation.