The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in Egypt has announced on Thursday, 18th June, 2020 the discovery of new oil in the shallow waters of Geisum concession south of the Gulf of Suez.

The Geisum Concession is located offshore Egypt in the Southern Gulf of Suez in shallow waters, with a depth ranging from 30 to 200 feet, covering an area of approximately 105 sq. km.

The ministry said that the discovery was made by Petrogulf Misr joint company, on behalf of Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, Pico GOS Petroleum Company Limited, and the Egyptian unit of Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC)

According to the statement, initial production rate is put at 2,000 barrels of crude per day. The concession is technically supervised by Ganoub El Wadi Petroleum Holding Co.

Earlier in June, the North-African country announced a discovery by Borg Al Arab Petroleum Company at Abu Sennnan concession in the Western Desert, with a planned daily production rate of 4,100 barrels of oil and 18 million cubic feet of natural gas.

The GNN-4 is the first appraisal well in the ongoing early production and reservoir appraisal drilling program for the GNN Nukhul oil discovery. The reservoir was discovered in July 2019 by the GNN-2 exploration well in ASH-2 area of Abe Sennan.

Egypt reportedly witnessed a seven per cent increase in oil and gas production in 2019, with a production rate of 650,000 barrels of crude oil and 7.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. This is according to a statement by the former Egyptian oil Minister.

Although a non-OPEC member, Egypt is an important oil-producing nation on the African continent and has the sixth-largest proven oil reserves in Africa. The first oil discovery in Egypt dates as far back as 1908, with more found in the late 1930s along the Gulf of Suez. There are large oil fields in the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Suez, the Western Desert, and the Eastern Desert.