Egypt’s Agiba Petroleum announces major gas discovery in Western Desert

Egyptian upstream oil and gas operating company Agiba Petroleum has announced a new natural gas discovery in the Western Desert with estimated reserves of 330bn cubic feet of gas, alongside around 10mn barrels of condensates and crude oil, Al Ahram reported on May 21, citing a statement from the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources. 

The discovery brings total recoverable resources to nearly 70mn barrels of oil equivalent.

Agiba Petroleum handles exploration, development, and production activities primarily in the Western Desert region. The joint venture is owned 50% by the state-run Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and 50% by Italy's Eni (BIT:ENI) (through its subsidiary IEOC).

According to the statement, the discovery marks the company’s largest find in the past 15 years and is expected to have significant strategic value due to its proximity to existing infrastructure. 

The newly discovered field lies only 10 kilometres from current facilities and infrastructure networks, a factor expected to accelerate development work and enable production to begin within a relatively short period.

The discovery was made through the South Bostan-1X exploratory well, drilled by Egyptian Drilling Company rig EDC-9. The ministry said the well encountered several sandstone and limestone reservoirs with a net productive thickness of approximately 400 feet. The ministry said the discovery reflects the success of incentives introduced to encourage partners to expand exploration activity around producing fields. 

Driven by declining domestic output at major fields like Zohr and surging power generation needs, Egypt has fully shifted from a net exporter to a structural importer, with liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports projected to rise more than 26% year-on-year to reach over 11mn metric tons in 2026.