Khalda Petroleum has made a new natural gas discovery after drilling the Watada deep exploration well in Egypt’s Western Desert to a depth of 15,000 feet.
The company, a joint venture between the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and global energy company Apache, achieved the discovery as part of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources’ strategy to maximise hydrocarbon production and accelerate the development of new discoveries.
Electrical logging confirmed the presence of gas-bearing formations, while final production tests, carried out immediately after drilling, recorded an initial output of 40 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (mcf/d).
The results highlight the well’s promising production potential and are expected to support Egypt’s efforts to increase domestic natural gas output.
Alongside the drilling and testing operations, Khalda Petroleum completed the construction of a new 10-kilometre production pipeline at a cost of $2.3 million, enabling the rapid evacuation of gas and the integration of the well into the existing production infrastructure.
Commercial production from the new well began yesterday, with gas already flowing into the production system.
The well is scheduled to be fully connected to Egypt’s national gas grid by the end of July, in line with the project’s timeline, further strengthening the country’s natural gas supply network and reinforcing the success of ongoing exploration efforts in the Western Desert.
