Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum announced on Wednesday a new gas discovery in the Western Desert, with an initial production rate of 40 million cubic feet of gas per day.

The ministry explained in a press release, a copy of which was obtained by Asharq Al-Awsat, that "as part of the strategy of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources to maximize production rates and accelerate the development of new discoveries, Khalda Petroleum Company succeeded in achieving a new gas discovery by drilling the deep exploratory well Watda in the Western Desert, at a depth of 15,000 feet. Khalda is the joint company between the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and Apache Corporation."

The ministry stated that wireline logs of the well showed positive indicators confirming the presence of gas-bearing formations, while final production tests, conducted immediately after drilling operations were completed, resulted in a production rate of 40 million cubic feet of gas per day, "reflecting the promising potential of the well and boosting efforts to increase domestic production."

In parallel with drilling and testing operations, the company completed the implementation of a new 10 km production line with an investment of $2.3 million, enabling rapid transfer of production and connection of the well to existing infrastructure, as part of a plan to accelerate putting new discoveries on the production map, according to the statement.

The statement mentioned that actual production and gas flow from the new well began on Tuesday, with its connection to the national gas grid to be completed before the end of July, according to the target timeline, thus supporting the gas supply system.