RIYADH: Egypt’s Khalda Petroleum Co. and Qarun Petroleum Co. intend to invest more than $1 billion in oil exploration in the Western Desert, Al Arabiya reported.
Khalda Petroleum plans to spend about $830 million during the fiscal year 2021/2022 drilling 35 exploration wells and 52 development wells as it seeks to achieve average daily production of about 130,000 barrels of crude oil and condensates, and 630 million cubic feet of natural gas in its concession areas in Western Sahara, Chairman Saeed Abdel Moneim said.
Qarun Petroleum will invest about $252 million in the area on 24 development wells and 5 exploration wells over the same period, the company’s President Ashraf Abdel-Gawad said. The investment will help boost annual production to about 9 million barrels of crude oil, he said.
The plans were announced during a budget planning video conference with Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tariq Al Mulla, who stressed the need to focus on exploration activities and the speed of their completion to compensate for the natural decrease in production.
