Centurion Energy International Inc., Calgary, plans to bring its El Wastani field on the El Manzala concession in Egypt on stream midyear, reported US Oil&Gas Journal on Tuesday.
El Manzala concession, in which Centurion owns 100 percent, covers 420,000 acres in Egypt. The company is concentrating on El Wastani and Abu Monkar as core areas, said the paper, adding that the field will begin production at 12 MMcfd of gas and 300 b/d of condensate from two wells.
Approval for the field's plan of development and gas sales agreement were received in November, said Centurion. Construction of the pipeline is expected to begin in April.
Production from the Abu Monkar area is expected in midyear 2002, according to the report.
The company expects to drill at least three more wells on the concession and possibly four more by 2002.
The petroleum industry plays a key role in the Egyptian economy accounting for about 40 percent of export earnings and the upstream sector for about 10 percent of the GDP. It is one of four main sources of foreign exchange, according to reports.
According to MBendi Information Services, a privately owned Internet business publishing and consulting company, Egypt is currently an oil exporter, but with increasing domestic demand and maturing oil fields in the Gulf of Suez, it is feared that in the period 2005 to 2010 the country will become a net importer of oil.
The Egyptian government is attempting to counter this by encouraging increased exploration, enhanced oil recovery and an increase in the domestic consumption of gas. Following encouraging discoveries in the 1990's, the future of Egypt's petroleum industry is thought to be in natural gas rather than crude oil.
The downstream oil industry is also important with a domestic energy consumption rate increasing by 2 percent to 10 percent per annum. Egypt has one of the strongest refining industries in Africa based in the Port Suez refinery complex – Albawaba.com
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