Apache With Shell Eye Egypt for Unconventional Gas in June

Apache Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc plan to start producing unconventional gas from their joint venture in Egypt’s Western Desert by the end of June even as Apache is cutting investment in the nation because of falling oil prices.

Apache and Shell will start drilling the North African country’s first unconventional gas well in a pilot project by the end of March, Apache Egypt Region Vice President and General Manager Thomas Maher said in an interview in Cairo. Apache and Shell will drill two additional wells before talking with the government about full development of the field by horizontal drilling and fracking, he said.

Egypt is seeking new investments in natural gas to help alleviate an energy shortage that led to lower production at factories last summer, and to reduce bills for imported liquefied natural gas. Before the 2011 uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, the country had sufficient supplies to ship gas by pipeline to Jordan and Israel. Egypt now plans to import gas from Iraq via Jordan through an existing link, the Egyptian oil ministry said on March 10.