Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum Tarek El Molla signed three new oil and gas exploration agreements in the Egyptian Western Desert with Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and American companies Apache and Merlon, with investments worth $79m. Accordingly, 17 new exploration wells will be drilled.
The agreement was signed between El Molla; Abed Ezz el-Regal, head of the EGPC; David Che, vice president and general manager of Apache Company in Egypt; and Maged Abdel Halim, director of Merlon.
The first and second agreements were signed with the Apache Company in the concession areas northwest of Razak in the Western Desert with investments of about $61m and south of Al-Shaweesh in the Western Desert with investments of $12m. The third convention was signed with the Merlon Company in Fayoum’s concession area in the Western Desert with investments of $6m.
The ministry’s strategy aims to attract more foreign investments in oil and gas exploration to contribute to the exploitation of Egypt’s oil and gas prospects in several areas, El Molla said.
He pointed out that the petroleum sector has succeeded in the conclusion of 79 new oil and gas exploration agreements with investments of about $15bn, stressing that the oil sector currently prioritises the acceleration of the necessary procedures for the implementation of the new agreements.
US companies are an important partner and player in the oil and gas production in Egypt, and the Western Desert is one of the most important areas of interest to US companies, which contributed to the outstanding results of petroleum activity in the area.
