Egypt: Oilfield Activity Unaffected By Violence

As the Revolution spills blood on Cairo’s streets, Apache Corp., the American independent, is celebrating a surge of discoveries. Dana Gas reports its highest gas production in the country in two years and Kuwait Energy records higher second quarter hydrocarbon production than the 2012 figures.
These are three, non-major, hydrocarbon companies. But their stories suggest that the violence we all see on TV doesn’t affect oilfield activity. This place is not exactly Libya.
Apache announced seven new oil and gas discoveries in Egypt, located in four geologic basins and six different concessions. These discoveries are located mostly around the company’s established infrastructure. Apache’s talk of exciting discoveries doesn’t mean that Egypt’s reserves are rising in a spectacular fashion. The company has established facilities: oil gathering plants, pipelines, air strips, and permanent housing in and around their main prospective acreages in Egypt such that the company can find and develop accumulations as small as two to three million barrels.
Dana Gas says in its August 2013 update it has achieved “gas production level in Egypt of 200 million standard cubic feet per day (equivalent of 41,500 BOEPD, including over 8,000 barrels per day of associated liquids), the highest level for the company in the country in two years”. This production represents a growth of 29% over the 2012 average.
Kuwait Energy’s 2Q 2013 output of 14, 013BOEPD in Egypt is 16% growth over the figure recorded for 12,027BOEPD. And what’s more, the company’s Egyptian operations delivers over 60% of the company’s worldwide working interest production, which includes Yemen, Oman, Russia and Ukraine.