BP has discovered natural gas in the Mediterranean Sea off the Egyptian city of Alexandria that will have an initial production of 28 million cubic meters (980 million cubic feet) a day, the government daily Al Akhbar reported Friday.
Output should eventually increase to 40 million cubic meters (1.4 billion cubic feet) a day, with the deposit expected to be exploitable for around 25 years, the newspaper added, cited by AFP.
According to a previous report by Mbendi.com, the future of Egypt's energy sector is considered to be in natural gas rather than crude oil. Gas has been found in the Mediterranean Offshore/Nile Delta and the Western Desert areas. Mid-2000, the estimates of gas reserves were placed at 42 Tcf. The importance of natural gas is growing rapidly and it is anticipated that Egypt will become a significant gas exporter.
Government policy currently encourages the domestic consumption of gas in order to free more crude oil for export. In January 2000, the Egyptian cabinet approved the export of natural gas.
At the end of 1999, the average for natural gas production was 2.3 Bcft/d. Anticipated production figures are 3.0 Bcf/d by the end of 2002, and 4.0 Bcf/d by the end of 2003. 64% of the country's gas output is consumed by power stations, 80% of which are gas-fired. Most of the gas is non-associated and over 50% is produced from the mature fields of Abu Madi and Abu Qir and the Badreddin field - Albawaba.com
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