To prevent the maturing of its crude fields from affecting its already deficit oil supply, Egypt has accelerated its oil and gas exploration campaigns in 2020, even in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. This has led to an increase in its hydrocarbon discoveries.
62 is the number of hydrocarbon deposits discovered last year in Egypt. 47 are home to petroleum reserves and 15 to natural gas reserves. The country thus recorded a growth of 13% of its discoveries, compared to the previous year. The discoveries were made in the Western Desert, the Eastern Desert, the Gulf of Suez, the Nile Delta and in the Mediterranean Sea.
It should be noted that this is the best African score of the year. This performance is remarkable given that the sector was marked by a record decrease in exploratory activity and a sharp plunge in oil and gas prices, which affected finances and, in turn, projects throughout the chain. valuable.
As a reminder, while all over Africa and the world, drilling platforms were becoming scarce at sea and on land, Egypt was one of the few countries where the pace of work has not dropped. It is above all the result of an aggressive exploration policy desired by Cairo, which also provided enormous support to the oil and gas companies present in its territory during the crisis.
“Modern technologies and advanced geological theories have contributed to better results in the search for oil and gas,” the oil ministry said in a statement. He continued: “these positive results indicate the success of research and exploration in the current oil fields, and suggest the existence of other oil resources which remain to be discovered” .
These efforts can be explained above all by the country’s need to increase crude oil production to cope with the maturing of many producing areas.
Source: Agence Ecofin