CAPITAL: Cairo

MONETARY UNIT: Pound

REFINING CAPACITY: 577,760 b/cd

PRODUCTION: 850,800 b/d

OIL/CONDENSATE RESERVES: 2.9 billion bbl

NATURAL GAS RESERVES: 35.2 tcf

Operators ran 14-18 rigs most of the year in Egypt, roughly half of them offshore units. This reflects mainly a continuation of gas exploration and appraisal in the Nile Delta, where several trillion cubic feet of reserves had been established in the late 1990s. The action, by area:

-Nile Delta. Exploration turned up more gas along the prolific delta. British Gas said its 10th consecutive find in 2 years in the delta flowed a restricted 45 MMcfd of gas on the West Delta Deep Marine concession.

RWE-DEA AG`s North Idku-1X discovery northeast of Alexandria flowed 37.1 MMcfd of gas and 330 b/d of condensate at 2,156-93 m and 48.4 MMcfd and 55 b/d of condensate at 1,768-85 m.

ENI`s International Egyptian Oil Co. acquired Marathon`s 25% interest in El Qar`a (Nidoco) gas and condensate field, which started up in May 1992. Interests became IEOC 75% and BP Amoco 25%.

-Gulf of Suez. Scimitar Hydrocarbons, Calgary, started up Issaran onshore heavy oil field in February 1999. The field was producing 1,400 bo/d by early December. Scimitar placed the newly drilled No. 10 well on line in December flowing 700 bo/d from the Gharandal and Nukhul formations. TD is 2,185 ft. The production brought Scimitar $15/bbl (Canadian) after all deductions. More drilling and well reactivations were planned.

A Tanganyika-Dublin group completed the Hana 1 and 2 wells on the 630,000 acre West Gharib block producing 25° gravity oil from Middle Miocene Kareem sands at about 4,900 ft. It hoped to place the wells on production late in the year. It plugged the Farha 1 wildcat 7 miles south.

IEOC acquired from Marathon the 50% interest IEOC did not own in Ashrafi oil field, which began producing 38° gravity crude in September 1992. IEOC said acquisition of interests in two fields boosted its reserves by 10 million boe and boosted its equity production in Egypt to 130,000 bo/d.

A group led by Alliance International Petroleum Inc. spudded West Asl-1 in late 1999 on the Sinai side of the Gulf of Suez. First of a four well program projected to 5,000 ft, it is the first well on the 4.2 million acre Central Sinai concession.

-Western desert. Repsol and Apache began gas deliveries from the Khalda concession during third quarter 1999. Gas production was climbing toward the target of 200 MMcfd as the group began filling the Shell-operated, 148 mile, 34 in. northern pipeline to Alexandria. First quarter 1999 gas deliveries averaged 3 MMcfd.

Another pipeline was being laid off the concession`s southern end, with deliveries to have begun around Jan. 1, 2000, at 50 MMcfd.

Oil production from the Khalda and Khalda Offset concessions reached 38,260 b/d in late 1999, compared with a first quarter average of 26,707 b/d.

The group completed the first commercial oil well from the mid-Cretaceous Kharita C formation in Kahraman C field. Kharita produces in Qarun field about 200 miles east. The geology indicated that potential might exist in the deeper Lower Cretaceous Alam el Bueib reservoir, a main producing zone on the Khalda ridge about 15 miles east.

-Red Sea. British Gas let a contract for a 1,500 sq km 3D seismic survey on Block 1 in the Red Sea. Schlumberger was to gather and process the data using a vessel that previously completed a 1,000 sq km 3D survey for IEOC on Block 2 to the south.

Processing activity

Misr Oil Processing Co. let a $450 million contract to Italy`s Snamprogetti SPA for engineering, procurement, and construction of a hydrocracking complex to be built at the Suez refinery. The complex was to process 53,500 b/d of straight-run atmospheric resid. The main conversion unit was to be a 35,000 b/d vacuum gas oil hydrocracker. Start-up was planned in mid-2002.

Italy`s Edison was considering the possibility of building a gas liquefaction plant in Egypt with a capacity starting at 4 bcm/year. The closest and most likely potential customer was Turkey.

Abu Qir Fertilizers Co. started up an ammonia-urea complex near Alexandria. Capacities are 1,200 tonnes/day of ammonia and 1,925 tonnes/day of granulated urea.