The Ministry of Petroleum announced that the total daily added production of natural gas since the beginning of 2017 thus far amounted to about 1.5bn standard cubic feet per day (scf/day) and 5,170 barrels of condensates. The ministry explained that the plans and programmes of work that have been implemented have contributed to increasing Egypt's natural gas production during this period, including the success of Belayim Petroleum Company (Petrobel) in increasing the production of the current Nooros field in the Nile Delta area and linking it to Abu Madi facilities. In addition, they rented two gas processing units to reach 1.150 scf/day of gas, next to the acceleration of the implementation stages of the development project of Zohr field, which kicked off early production at the end of December 2017 with 350m scf/day and then reached over 1bn scf/day now. Zohr is planned to boost production to 2.7bn scf/day in 2019. Six of the Abo Qir wells have also been linked to the grid, which increased productivity to 160m scf/day. The North Alexandria project is considered one of the most important gas projects. Despite the many challenges facing the project, the oil sector has been able to adjust the development plan to start the early production of the Libra and Taurus fields in March, at a rate of 720m scf/day. According to a statement by the Ministry of Petroleum, the development of the Giza and Fayoum fields is being finalised for production by the end of this year, while Raven field will launch in October 2019, with a productivity of some 850m scf/day. Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla said that the oil sector seeks to implement the project of developing and modernising the oil sector through non-traditional programmes and mechanisms, to increase the productivity of the existing gas fields, complete the development of the discovered gas fields, and accelerate the pace of work to compensate for the natural decline in the productivity of the old gas fields in Egypt. He explained that these projects are essential pillars to secure the needs of the country and the requirements of the state's development plans of natural gas, especially the projects that achieve and maximise the added value of Egypt's gas wealth.
