LOC13:43
10:43 GMT
CAIRO, Jan 1 (KUNA) -- Egypt announced Monday that the Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company (GUPCO) has successfully placed the first well of the North Safa oil field in the northeastern Ramadan region of the Gulf of Suez on its production map, hitting 6,000 barrels a day.
This is part of the strategy of the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources aiming at boosting the country's crude oil production, speeding up the development of discovered oilfields and optimally tapping available opportunities to maximize production, the ministry said in a release.
The first phase of the oilfield's early production project aims to reach 6,000 barrels a day in mid-January after the first well was placed on the production map at a rate of 2,500 barrels a day, it added.
The second well is planned to be completed in mid-January only to take production up to the targeted rates amid expectations to increase it once more to 12,000 barrels a day by means of drilling seven new oil wells, it noted. (end)
aff.mt