EGPC to issue oil exploration auction by 2017-end

CAIRO – 15 July 2017: The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) will issue a new oil exploration auction by the end of 2017, Minister of Petroleum Tarek el-Molla said Saturday.

Molla said in a statement that the bidding will be on EGPC’s areas of concessions.
Egypt signed 83 oil and gas exploration agreements over the past four years, Molla added.

Last year, the EGPC defined six areas for exploration in the Gulf of Suez and the Western Desert, where several oil companies contracts, including Apache, Apex and Shell, among others. Total investments in these areas are $160 million.

In June, Molla said that he agreed with five companies to conduct a $750m seismic survey in the Red Sea. The companies are WesternGeco Schlumberger and US-based TGS.

Egypt has a proven reserve of six billion barrels of crude oil, 23 billion barrels of equivalent gas in the Red Sea, and eight billion of gas and shale oil, according to United States Geological Survey (USGS).