Three $81.4M agreements signed for Egypt’s oil, gas exploration

CAIRO - 29 August 2017: Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla signed Tuesday new 3 oil and gas exploration agreements in the Western Desert with a total value of $81.4 million in investments.

The agreements were signed between the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), Royal Dutch Shell and Apex to drill 16 new wells using $23.2 million.

Shell’s contract will involve working in North Om Baraka concession in the Western Desert with $35.5 million in investments, while the second and third agreements will allow Apex the right to work in southeast Maliha and West Badr El-Din concessions with $26.5 million and $19.4 million in investments respectively.

This is the second series of agreements to be signed by the Petroleum Ministry in the same week. Molla signed Saturday 3 contracts for oil and gas exploration with Apache Corporation and Merlon International, LLC.

The minimum value of investments in these contracts is $79 million, of which $41 million will be allocated to drill 17 exploratory wells.

Molla said in the statement that attracting investments in the oil and gas exploration field has been a priority for the Ministry.

The petroleum sector had succeeded in signing 79 new agreements for oil and gas exploration since mid-2013, with minimum investments of $15.3 billion, Molla said.