New agreements shake up Egypt’s oil market: OilPrice

CAIRO – 4 September 2017: The latest agreements signed by the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum has caused recovery in Egypt’s oil and gas sector, world’s leading magazine OilPrice said in a Monday report.

The new contracts will be the start of a wide-range campaign to revive the sector, which was hampered over the past few years, OilPrice added.

Last week, the Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla signed Tuesday three new 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, and they entail drilling 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 on Saturday three 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.

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