A New Agiba Western Desert Exploration Well to Add 3,100

The exploration activities in the North Lotus Deep-1 well in Western Desert yielded positive results and it will add about 1,835 barrels of crude oil per day (b/d) and 7 million cubic feet of natural gas daily (mcf/d), which is equivalent to 3,100 barrels of oil equivalent (boe), according to a press release by the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MoPMR). With estimated reserves of about 5 million (boe), the well has already been put on the production map.

The new well belongs to Agiba Petroleum Company, a joint venture between the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and Italy’s Eni. This discovery, funded by Eni investments, confirms that there are good oil and gas prospects in the Western Desert and highlights the areas’ appeal to attract investment, aligning with the first pillar of the ministry’s strategy to gradually increase local production and reduce reliance on imports, according to the ministry’s statement.

The announcement follows another significant milestone by Agiba, which recently drilled the first deep horizontal well and produced oil and gas from the deep Masajid reservoir—one of the most geologically challenging layers—at depths exceeding 11,000 feet. Due to its low permeability, this formation traditionally yields limited output from vertical wells.
However, thanks to advanced horizontal drilling technologies, a breakthrough was achieved for the first time in the Western Desert at the North Rosa field. The result: a daily addition of approximately 7 million cubic feet of gas and 550 barrels of oil equivalent from this formation—a sixfold increase compared to conventional production rates.

Tharwat El Gendy, Agiba’s chairman, noted that the company’s investments in 2024/2025 came at $404 million,  adding that it maintained stable production rates, with an average output of more than 26,000 b/d of crude oil, while the average natural gas production was 77 mcf/d, bringing the total to more than 40,000 boe/d.