Royal Dutch Shell is currently exporting about 300m cubic feet of gas per day (cfpd) from the Borollos and Rashid fields through its Idku LNG plant, compared to 250m cfpd last month. A source from the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) told Daily News Egypt that the quantities of gas destined for exportation through Idku facility increased by about 50m cfpd, after the decline in local consumption affected by the decrease of gas quantities destined for power plants in winter. He added that Shell exports only one LNG shipment every 10 days in accordance with the current supply rates of Idku plant. Shell agreed with the ministry of petroleum to gradually increase the volume of gas earmarked for exports through its Idku plant in return for accelerating the development of Phase 9B in the Borollos field, to achieve a return that would enable it to pay operating expenses and profits to the shareholders of the plant. He explained that 20m cfpd was added to the general network from the first well, Simian DT, in Phase 9B of the West Delta Deep Marine (WDDM) concession. The well's production will be increased after assessing it. The source said that the total production of the fields of Borollos and Rashid reached 400m cfpd in October, compared to 390m cfpd in September. He explained that the production is divided into about 385m cfpd from Borollos, and 15m cfpd from Rashid concession areas. The ministry of petroleum aims to operate the Idku LNG plant on full capacity to export gas to world markets by 2020/21. The contractual rate of Idku plant is 1.13bn cfpd. These rates have decreased since 2011 until it was finally stopped at the beginning of 2015. In order to achieve self-sufficiency and balance between revenues and expenses, the plant needs to export 22 LNG shipments per year. The Idku facility is designed to operate for 340 days each year, and stops production for one month for maintenance, which costs $20m per year. Idku's shareholders include the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation 12%; EGAS 12%; Shell 35.5%; PETRONAS 35.5%, and Gaz de France 5%.
