Dana Gas is studying the possibilities of launching new projects in Egypt, its executive chairman Hamid Dhiya Jafar announced.
He also recently briefed Egyptian Prime Minister Dr Ahmed Nazif on the company’s ongoing operations and investments in Egypt.
During talks held at the premier’s offices in Cairo, Jafar updated Nazif on the company’s ongoing operations and investments in Egypt, including recent gas and oil discoveries Dana Gas has made in the country and further projects under development.
The meeting was also attended by Egyptian Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmy and Dana Gas Egypt country director Dr Hany El Sherkawi.
The discussions also covered additional gas projects Dana Gas is undertaking in Egypt and further investment opportunities in the country’s growing energy sector.
Jafar highlighted Dana Gas’s regional differentiator focus in terms of maximising the benefits of natural gas to the country, and presented the Dana Gas City proprietary concept of developing local gas-based industries which the company is developing in several countries of the region, and which encompasses an integrated community optimising natural gas utilisation.
The Dana Gas City concept is in line with Egypt’s current policy of maximising economic and social benefits of its natural gas resources to the country.
Egypt’s natural gas reserves have doubled in the last five years to over 70 trillion cubic feet.
Dana Gas, the Middle East’s first and largest regional private-sector natural gas company, is very active in Egypt, where it is the sixth largest gas producer and among the 64 companies operating in Egypt.
Earlier this year, Dana Gas paid $1.1 billion to acquire Centurion Energy, a Canadian company with gas operations in Egypt.
Dana Gas will be investing more than $80 million on exploration activities in 2007, and has already made several additional discoveries, including most recently the first commercial oil discovery ever made in Southern Egypt, which proves the petroleum generating capability of the province, with the promise of further commercial discoveries in the area.
The company is also leading a consortium to build and operate the Gulf of Suez Gas Liquids Plant, in partnership with the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) and the Arab Petroleum Investment Corporation (Apicorp).
The plant will produce around 120,000 metric tonnes per year of propane and butane in liquid form, with the products to be exported to international markets, and thus providing significant value-add to Egypt’s gas resources.
Headquartered in Sharjah in the UAE, and listed on the Abu Dhabi Stock Market, Dana Gas has founders and shareholders from across the GCC and the Middle East region, and is active in all sectors of the natural gas industry across the whole gas value chain, with projects already under implementation in the UAE and the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and business development activities throughout the region.
The company recently closed a $1 billion Islamic sukuk convertible bond offering which met with strong demand from international investors.
Dana Gas is the first regional private-sector natural gas company in the Middle East, established with over 300 reputable founder shareholders from across the GCC region, and some 300,000 investors from over 100 nationalities worldwide who submitted applications of over $78 billion over 10 days in the company’s regional IPO in late 2005. Dana Gas possesses a network of offices in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, the UK, and Canada, with further offices opening throughout the Middle East.
