Abu Dhabi: Dana Gas on Monday announced it has received $40 million (Dh146.8 million) in payments from the Egyptian government taking the total receipts to $88.8 million (Dh325.9 million) this year.
The company said it will use the cash to proceed with growth initiatives such as drilling Balsam-8 in its development lease onshore Nile Delta to increase production.
“We are pleased to have received this $40 million payment from the Egyptian Government which takes our total receipts to nearly $90 million for the first half of the year. It is a timely cash boost and highlights the government’s publicly stated commitment to substantially reduce the petroleum companies’ receivables during 2018,” Patrick Allman-Ward, CEO of Dana Gas, said in a statement.
He added that the company’s primary focus will remain on increasing production and on drilling its first offshore well in Block 6, due to commence in early 2019.
“Block-6 is highly prospective and contains several material prospects with multi-Tcf potential,” he said.
The company earlier said that it will not make any new investments in Egypt if they don’t receive payments from the government.
Dana Gas is the fifth largest gas producer in Egypt with a production of 36,800 barrels of oil per day in the first quarter of 2018. It has 14 development leases, three exploration concessions and two processing plants.
Listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), Dana Gas also has exploration and production assets in Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and UAE.
