IFC Planning to Provide Funding of US90 Million for the Development of the Merlon/Melrose Tracts

摘要

The consortium composed of Merlon Petroleum Company of the U.S.and the British firm Melrose Resources Pic,which hold the Qantara and El Mansoura concessions in the onshore part of the Nile delta,could receive loans of US90 million (US45 million to each company) from the International Finance Corporation (IFC),part of the World Bank group.Merlon is the operator of both tracts,with interests of 54% and 50% in Qantara and El Mansoura respectively.It made three commercial gas discoveries on the El Mansoura acreage in 2003 with the South Mansoura,Mansouriya and South Batra wells,the last of which struck the largest structure,estimated to contain potential gas in place of over 600 billion cu ft.Output from the discovery well could reach 30 million cu ft/day this year,while the field as a whole could be producing 110 million cu ft of oil equivalent per day by 2005.