Egypt's Upstream Gateway a quantum leap to increase investment attraction: Molla

CAIRO – 27 October 2020: Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, held a meeting with the Executive Committee of the Egypt's Upstream Gateway (EUG) project to follow up the progress of implementing the project, which is the first of its kind in the Egyptian petroleum industry.

The ministry stated Monday that this comes within the framework of the first program of the project to develop and modernize the petroleum sector and develop advanced mechanisms to help speed and increase the attraction of foreign investment and support Egypt's competitiveness in the fields of research and exploration, which will positively affect the increase in reserves and production rates of oil and gas.

Molla said that this project represents a modern qualitative leap in the mechanisms of marketing petroleum investment opportunities through an integrated digital portal for the activity of research, exploration and production of petroleum and gas resources, which was implemented with the help of Schlumberger, an international company with experience and advanced technological solutions.

He pointed out that the portal includes technical data on this activity and works to maximize its value, develop and market it globally to international oil companies, clarify opportunities, indicators and possibilities, as well as promote through the new portal for global auctions that the petroleum sector will offer to investors during the coming period to search for new and promising areas.

He emphasized that the application of this advanced mechanism helps to speed up investment decisions in Egypt through a clear vision based on information and data, and reflects the petroleum sector’s coping with the uses of modern technology and the global digital transformation in this industry.

The minister pointed out that this project will have a positive impact on investment in the field of research and exploration in Egypt and will work to maximize the opportunities to increase it, attract new international companies that have not worked in Egypt before, and enhance the investments of existing companies.

He noted that preparations are underway to launch this portal during the coming period, before the end of the year, and that all new international auctions will be launched through it.

During the meeting, the directors of the geophysical project, Mohamed Radwan and Ahmed Sameh, reviewed the progress of the implementation of the project, which witnessed the intensification of work during the last period to establish the information infrastructure and digitize data by re-converting all old technical data from paper form or old preservation media that are not commensurate with the technological development to the modern digital platform using the latest technologies to save and secure data continuously.

“The digital portal also facilitates the process of purchasing technical data packages for each region through it without the need for companies to come to Egypt, leading to the speedy completion of procedures for investment in the field of exploration and providing the opportunity for the largest number of international companies to obtain data packages and apply for petroleum auctions,’ he added.