British Petroleum (BP) plans to start drilling two new natural gas wells in the western Delta region of Egypt's Mediterranean waters next January with investments of $160 million.
Egypt has provided foreign companies with new incentives to increase gas production, which are to allow the export of a certain share of the new production, so that their revenues are used to pay the required dues, in addition to raising the price of these companies' share of new production of gas.
BP plans to invest about $1.5 billion in Egypt over the next few years as it seeks to develop gas and drilling projects in the country.
A government official told Bloomberg Al Sharq said that the drilling operation comes within the company's plan to drill new wells with the aim of exploring new layers carrying natural gas in the West Delta region so that they can be quickly entered into production facilities if economic gas reserves are available.
This comes after the agreement with the Egyptian Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi to expedite the drilling of the two wells in the "Raven" field and linking them to production, in exchange for the Egyptian government's commitment to pay the dues of BP according to the agreed schedule.
The official added that the rig has now arrived at the operations site to start drilling early next year.
Egypt's daily natural gas needs are 6.2 billion cubic feet per day, with its daily production reaching about 4.6 billion cubic feet.
The government aims to increase natural gas production by the end of this year to about 5 billion cubic feet per day.
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