UK major Shell will commence gas production at the Mina West field in Egypt’s segment of the Mediterranean Sea, in the fourth quarter of 2026.
The project, expected to top up the country’ output by 160Million standard cubic feet of gas per day, is being developed by Shell and Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC), in partnership with Egypt’s Rashid Petroleum.
Dalia El Gabry, Shell Egypt’s Country Chair, met with Karim Baldawi, Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, last week (May 4, 2026), to brief him on the project.
Shell discovered the Mina West accumulation in November 2023 with Mina West-1 well, located in North East El-Amriya block. The well was drilled by the drillship Stena Forth.
Mina West-2, the second well in the field, is currently being drilled by Stena IceMax, another Stena Drilling drillship.
Mina West- 1 and Mina West-2 will be tied back to existing production facilities in the West Delta Deep Marine (WDDM) area.
After drilling Mina West-2, Stena IceMax will move to the exploratory Sirius-1 well in the same block, to assess a gas reservoir in shallower waters, followed by the Velox well in the North Cleopatra area in the Herodotus Basin, aimed at opening new prospects for gas discoveries.
Egypt is desperate to increase gas production to supply its 40+,000MW thermal plants and feed its gas addicted industries. Output has fallen from higher than 7Billion standard cubic feet per day (7Bscf/d) in 2021 to less than 5Bscf/d in 2026. The country has been importing dozens of LNG cargos.
