Dubai–Dana Gas, the Gulf's only listed natural gas company, said on Tuesday it has made a new gas discovery in Egypt, the company's fifth gas find in the country.
"A preliminary estimate of the discovered reserves in the new pool (El Wastani formation) is in excess of 60 Bcf of gas, with a possible upside still under evaluation," the company said in a statement.
The company, which plans to list its shares in London, will prepare a separate development plan for this new pool and is still evaluating a possible upside in reserves.
In the test, the South Abu El Naga-2 well produced 14.1 million standard cubic feet per day of gas with 718 barrels of condensate from the Abu Madi Formation, the company said.
"The discovery at the South Abu El Naga-2 well represents a new era of shallow wells that can be drilled at low cost with fast production to meet Egypt's gas production demands," Hany Elsharkawi, Dana Gas Egypt President said in a statement.
"We still have a sizeable portfolio of drillable prospects and our exploration activity will continue throughout the year, as will our development activities," he added.
The company is looking to boost its Egypt production by more than 20 percent this year, it said in April, adding that a similar increase is on the cards for 2012.
Dana Gas is currently the sixth-biggest gas producer in Egypt, a country whose gas reserves has doubled in the past five years to more than 70 trillion cubic feet, and now produces more gas than oil and is already among the world's top 10 exporters of LNG, the company statement said.
It has significant operations in the UAE, Iraq and Egypt.
