Abu Dhabi - Mubasher: Dana Gas, listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), on Sunday announced it has received an additional payment of $44.3 million (AED 162.4 million) from its operations in Egypt.

This payment consists of an additional $35 million industry payment from the Egyptian government and $9.3 million from the sale of 157,350 barrels of El Wastani condensate, the Sharjah-based company said in a statement.

The Middle East’s largest regional private sector natural gas company has received two payments worth $55 million (AED 202 million) in dues from the North African country in December, according to the statement.

“The shipment of El Wastani condensate is the fifth shipment of condensate sales in 2018, resulting in total collections of $54 million from condensate shipments from Egypt in 2018,” Dana Gas said.

The ADX-listed company’s total receipts from Egypt stood at AED 729 million ($199 million) year-to-date, 21% up from AED 600 million ($164 million) in 2017.

Accordingly, the company’s current receivables in Egypt hit the lowest level since 2011, the statement noted.

“Receiving $55 million in December from the Egyptian government is positive for Dana Gas as it enables us to complete our final preparations to drill our first offshore deepwater exploration well in the Block 6 North El Arish Concession Area early in 2019,” CEO of Dana Gas Patrick Allman-Ward said.

“We are encouraged by the government’s willingness to make payments against their outstanding receivables before the year-end and we hope this will carry through into 2019 to clear the outstanding balance entirely as per the agreement,” he added.

Earlier this month, Dana Gas revealed its production reached 70,000 barrels oil equivalent per day (boepd) from the debottlenecking project in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the completion of the Balsam8 well in Egypt.