EL-ARISH, Egypt: Egypt has discovered a new natural gas field in the northern Sinai, the local government announced Tuesday.
The state oil company Petrobel uncovered the field near the Sinai village of Ramana, 30 kilometers (18 miles) east of the Suez Canal, said Wahbi Abdullah, the director of production in the North Sinai Governorate.
Abdullah described the field as very large but could not specify the amount of gas believed to be in the site.
Egypt, which has limited oil reserves, has been dramatically increasing its natural gas production and began exports of liquefied natural gas in January 2005.
Gas production has averaged about 108 million cubic meters per day (3.6 billion cubic feet) and the country s prover reserves are estimated at 2 trillion cubic meters (66 trillion cubic feet), according to the United States government s Energy Information Administration.
In January, Egypt signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel to supply Israel with $2.5 billion worth of natural gas over the next 15 years. AP
