Description

The year 1886 was the landmark in Egyptian petroleum history when oil was found for the first time ever. Since then, a long journey of attainments and failures shaped today’s history of the Egyptian petroleum sector.

The beginning of the Oil industry in Egypt goes back to 1883. M. de Bay, a Belgium specialist along with the Egyptian Government were exploring Ras Gemsah in the Eastern Deseret for the search for oil, but operations did not take place until 1885. Based on a publication by Schlumberger discussing the history and role of oil and gas in Egypt and its evolution, M. de Bay was working on the drilling of five wells along with his team. The results of their drilling operations led to a production of 1.3 tons of oil and gas per day from the first well. Unfortunately, the drilling operations of the second and third wells were not fruitful and as a result, the government decided to find a replacement and assigned an American, H.T. along with a new team of drillers to follow M. de Bay’s search.

In 1886, the Egyptian Government was able to dig oil from Ras Gemsah, which marked the beginning of the country’s oil industry. During this same year, an American team was appointed to develop a survey on the area, based on which, the team recommended resuming the drilling operations, not only in the Ras Gemsah but also at the Ras Dhib to the north and Abu Durba on the east side of the Gulf.