Successful Drilling Of Shell's First Exploratory Gas Well In The Mediterranean In 2026

The results of drilling the exploratory well Sirius 1X in the Northeast Amreya area in the Mediterranean Sea, operated by Shell, have shown encouraging initial indications after reaching the target depth of 2,115 meters. This enhances the chances of developing new gas resources from the exploratory Sirius reservoir, with the possibility of an early development decision during 2027.

This is the first exploratory well drilled by Shell during 2026 as part of its plan to expand gas exploration and production activities in its concession areas in the Mediterranean in Egypt. The company has started its drilling program with the Mina West 2 and Sirius wells in the Northeast Amreya area.

Weeks ago, Eng. Karim Badawi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, followed up the drilling operations in this area, as part of the ongoing monitoring of efforts to increase domestic natural gas production.

Shell and its partner, Kuwait's KUFPEC, in collaboration with EGAS, have succeeded in maximizing the benefit from the drilling of the Mina West 2 well to obtain geological and technical data for the Sirius 1X well. This has contributed to achieving significant cost savings by avoiding the drilling of an additional well specifically for collecting this data.

The new discovery is planned to be connected to production by 2029, as a subsequent phase to the ongoing development of the Mina West field. Meanwhile, drilling continues at the Mina West 2 well, in preparation for production by the end of this year.