Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
Dana Gas, the Middle East’s largest private-sector natural gas company, has received a $50 million payment from the Egyptian government, a move that reduces outstanding receivables and supports the continuation of its upstream investment program in the country.
The payment, confirmed in a company press release dated January 5, 2026, comes as part of the consolidation agreement signed between Dana Gas and the Egyptian authorities in December 2024. That agreement restructured the company’s long-standing position in Egypt by unifying multiple development leases into a single concession, improving fiscal terms and allocating additional exploration acreage to encourage renewed investment in the Nile Delta and Mediterranean regions.
Dana Gas has already begun implementing the agreement through an active drilling campaign. Since the program started, the company has drilled four wells, adding around 18 million standard cubic feet per day of gas production and delivering a meaningful increase in reserves. Among the most notable results is the North El-Basant 1 discovery, which has strengthened the asset base and reinforced the commercial rationale for continued investment.
The next phase of the program will extend through 2026 and includes the drilling of seven additional wells. The upcoming operation, the Daffodil exploration well, is scheduled to spud in January, marking the continuation of what the company describes as an 11-well investment program. Dana Gas estimates that the full program could generate more than $1 billion in economic savings for Egypt by replacing imported liquefied natural gas and fuel oil with domestically produced gas.
Chief Executive Officer Richard Hall highlighted the importance of the latest payment, thanking the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, and the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company for their cooperation. He stressed that regular and timely payments are essential to maintaining drilling momentum and ensuring the successful delivery of the program.
The developments come at a time when Egypt is seeking to balance rising domestic energy demand with its ambitions to remain a key regional energy hub. While the country has invested heavily in gas infrastructure and export capacity over the past decade, fluctuating production levels and higher consumption have increased the importance of maximizing output from existing fields. Incremental production from companies such as Dana Gas plays a role in easing pressure on imports and improving the country’s energy balance.
Under the consolidation agreement signed in December 2024, Dana Gas’s 14 existing development leases were combined into a single concession with revised commercial terms. The restructuring extended the productive life of mature assets and was designed to unlock further exploration and development activity that had previously been constrained by fragmented contracts and delayed payments.
With drilling activity accelerating and payments resuming, Dana Gas is positioning Egypt as a core pillar of its regional portfolio. For the Egyptian government, the agreement and the renewed investment signal a continued effort to attract private-sector partners to support energy security, reduce import costs, and sustain the country’s role in regional gas markets.
