Petroleum Min. closes int'l oil exploration bid Sunday

CAIRO - 12 September 2019: Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, represented by South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Company (Ganope), will close receiving tenders for the 2019 international bidding in the Red Sea on Sunday, Sept. 15 before noon.

Sources at the petroleum sector told Egypt Today that companies applying to the tender included Shell, ExxonMobil, Statoil, Dragon Oil, Russian Rosneft and Total France.

In March, Ganope announced an international bidding for oil exploration in 10 sectors of the Red Sea;the first covers an area of 3057 km2, the second covers an area of 3010 km2, the third covers 3067 km2, the fourth covers 3084 km2, the fifth covers 3025 km2, the sixth covers 3050 km2, the seventh covers3090 km2, the eighth covers 3060 km2, the ninth covers 3067 km2, and the tenth covers 3039 km2.

Earlier in September, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi ordered expanding research plans and exploration in the petroleum sector, in addition to focusing on oil and gas infrastructure projects to achieve optimal economic benefit of all natural resources.

During his meeting with Sisi, Minister of Petroleum Tarek el-Molla reviewed the strategy of the ministry, within the framework of the state's policy to meet the domestic market's needs of petroleum products and to reduce the gap between production and consumption.

Molla also reviewed the electronic system to monitor the circulation and distribution of petroleum products to ensure data governance and prevent manipulation.

The accomplishments of the petroleum sector included achieving self-sufficiency in natural gas in Egypt, where natural gas represented the highest growth rate during 2018/2019, Molla said, thanks to the quick implementation of projects of gas fields' development and exploration.

The ministry has developed the petrochemical industry of added-value in the country to cope with the changes in the global market, with the aim of meeting the needs of the domestic market, supporting many industrial sectors and exporting surplus.

The Egyptian Petroleum Authority and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) signed on Sept. 5 two agreements to explore oil and gas in Egypt's western desert, according to the Petroleum Ministry.

The ministry clarified that the agreements stipulate drilling four exploratory wells in Southeast Abu Snan and RasKattara in Western Sahara with a minimum investment of $4 million.