Dana Gas announced that it is awaiting payment of $24 million from the Egyptian government out of its total outstanding dues of $59 million, in a disclosure to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.

 The company stated that receiving this payment is crucial for moving forward with its strategic development and exploration program, which includes drilling 11 wells in Egypt.

The development program, in which the company plans to invest approximately $100 million, is expected to boost production rates and add 80 billion cubic feet to its gas reserves, according to the company's statement.

Dana Gas also highlighted that the additional gas output is anticipated to generate savings exceeding $1 billion for the Egyptian economy by reducing reliance on LNG imports and heavy fuel oil for electricity generation.

The outstanding debts owed to foreign companies stood at $4.5 billion as of last March. Of this amount, $1.3 billion was paid in June, $1.2 billion in September, and $1 billion last Monday, leaving only $1 billion in remaining arrears.

Egypt’s efforts to settle outstanding debts to foreign oil companies come at a time when the country is striving to boost its natural gas production, which has dropped to 4.6 billion cubic feet per day—a level insufficient to meet daily domestic demand.

The dues of foreign companies working in the field of oil and gas exploration and extraction to the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation amounted to about $4.5 billion, according to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report last March.

Egypt’s daily needs for natural gas are 6.2 billion cubic feet per day, while its daily production is about 4.6 billion cubic feet.

 The government aims to increase natural gas production by the end of this year to about 5 billion cubic feet per day.