Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi witnessed on Thursday the signing of a co-operation agreement between the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and global oilfield services company Halliburton.
The agreement provides for studies to develop a programme to drill 50 oil wells in the EGPC’s concession areas over 18 months.
The programme will employ advanced horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing technologies to boost domestic oil and gas production.
The agreement is part of a ministry initiative launched this year to expand the use of modern and unconventional technologies in exploration and production. These technologies are expected to help unlock new resources and geological formations that cannot be economically exploited using conventional methods.
Badawi said modern technologies were essential to increasing domestic oil and gas production, unlocking untapped resources and boosting Egypt’s production capacity.
He praised the swift progress made following talks with Halliburton Chairman and CEO Jeff Miller and other company officials on the sidelines of the ADIPEC conference in Abu Dhabi days earlier.
The agreement builds on the EGPC’s recent success in using hydraulic fracturing for the first time to produce gas from the Abu Roash F formation at the NES-8 well in the Western Desert.
Production from the well has approached three million cubic feet of gas per day. The technology has made it possible to extract gas from a low-permeability formation that could not previously be commercially exploited using conventional methods.
Miller welcomed the agreement and praised the efforts of both teams.
He reaffirmed Halliburton’s commitment to providing its expertise and advanced technologies to support the programme.
