UAE-based Dana Gas plans to drill additional wells in Egypt after it received all outstanding payments from the country's government.
The company has received additional payments of Dh79 million ($21.5 million), which marks the full settlement of all overdue receivables in Egypt, it said in a statement on Tuesday to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, where its shares are traded.
The full settlement and continued timely payments by the Egyptian government will help the company to continue investing in the country, it added. The move is in line with government efforts to increase domestic gas production and cut reliance on imported liquefied natural gas.
It highlights the Egyptian government’s efforts to boost foreign investment in the energy sector. Constrained by economic and financial pressures, Egypt had for years struggled to clear the dues owed to oil and gas companies operating in the country. But it has managed catch up on delayed payments over the past couple of years.
It is an important development that "gives us greater confidence to continue investing in Egypt”, said Richard Hall, chief executive of Dana Gas Group. “Combined with the progress we have made operationally over recent months, this demonstrates the benefits of the investment programme that we continue to execute.”
Continued payments support the company’s drilling programme under a $100 million consolidation agreement. The multiyear deal, signed with Cairo in late 2024, integrated Dana Gas’s concessions in Egypt and aims to support new upstream investment.
In 2025, Dana Gas drilled four wells and also carried out workovers across three additional wells, adding about 30 million standard cubic feet per day of production and 36 billion cubic feet of reserves. “More recent drilling activity has delivered results significantly above expectations,” Mr Hall said on Tuesday.
The latest well has identified an estimated 10 billion cubic feet of gas reserves, significantly exceeding the original prognosis of three billion cubic feet.
The results are better than initially projected and open up additional development and exploration opportunities in Egypt. It has the potential to contribute about 12 billion cubic feet of future gas resources once developed, Mr Hill said. Dana Gas plans to drill four further wells before the end of 2026, he added.
Established in 2005, Dana Gas has exploration and production assets in Egypt, as well as in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and the company's home base in the UAE.
