US corporation Apache has completed the necessary studies to research and explore shale gas in the Al-Obayyed Field in the Western Desert for the first time in Egypt. In addition, it will prepare an evaluation of the layers and calculate the gas reserves. The foreign partner will approve the required budget for drilling the wells, complete them, and add them to operations. An official in the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) told Daily News Egypt that Apache completed the studies and sent them to its head office in the US for revision, to put forth a work plan for drilling the first exploratory well. The official added that the Dutch Shell and Apache are working together on the project in the upper layers of the land, called the Safa layers. These layers have a high-quality thickness, but require irregular operation methods. However, Apache will be responsible for implementing the work due to its expertise. The official said that Shell requested form the EGPC to agree on the price of the shale gas that will be produced from the area for the first time in Egypt, because the cost of the project will be high and the process of extraction is significantly different than regular sources. Egypt pays $2.65 for every British Thermal Unit (BTU) in most of its agreements, except in some areas in the deep Mediterranean water. The official added that the EGPC began re-examining the prices of gas with foreign partners to achieve a revenue rate the suits the size of risk and investments in the sector of oil and gas research and exploration. The official said negotiations with the partners over the gas prices will continue in a dynamic way, so that companies would speed up implementing the development plans in their concession areas. A report from the US revealed that Egypt has 535tr cubic feet of shale gas, 99tr of which can be extracted, while there may be a risk in extracting the rest.
