The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in Egypt said that the international company Apache, in cooperation with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, succeeded in achieving a new discovery of natural gas in the Western Desert. The Ministry added that the results of the well’s initial tests showed that daily production rates were achieved at approximately 26 million cubic feet of natural gas and 2,700 barrels of condensates. The Ministry explained that this was done after drilling the “Scale-1” exploratory well in the South Kalabsha region, as part of the results of efforts to stimulate investment to increase local production of natural gas and reduce the import bill. The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources indicated that the new discovery is located in one of the areas that was assigned to the company.