Dana Gas gets $48m payment from Egypt

DANA Gas has announced that it received payment of $48 million (R676m) from its operations in Egypt in June.

These collections comprise $38m in payments from the government (of which $30m is Dana Gas’s share of the industry payment) and $10m from the sale of the second El Wastani condensate shipment in 2019.

The industry payment is part of the government’s ongoing efforts to reduce its overdue receivables position to zero by the end of 2019.

Since 2018, the company has continued to make steady progress in reducing its outstanding balance of overdue receivables.

Total receipts from Egypt in 2018 reached $208m, reducing the total receivables sum to $140m by yearend, the lowest level since January 2011.

The company has received a total of $78m in payments during H1 2019, further reducing the company’s receivables to $125m.

Commenting on the announcement, Dr Patrick AllmanWard, chief executive of Dana Gas, said: “Receiving $38m from the Egyptian government in June shows steady progress for the government in achieving its target of paying all the overdue receivables by year-end.

“These payments will provide funds to execute our current onshore work-over programme and contribute towards the costs of drilling Merak-1, our deep-water exploration well in Block 6.

“Drilling operations are progressing well and we are expecting to have results in the third quarter this year.”

Dana Gas began drilling operations on May 29 this year at its Merak-1 well, offshore Egypt. The location is in 755m of water in the North El Arish concession (Block 6). This block lies in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin where other world-class giant natural gas discoveries have been made in recent years. |