Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla has signed two oil and gas exploration agreements in the Mediterranean with Exxon Mobil, the ministry announced on Tuesday.
The press statement indicates that the new agreements set a minimum investment of $332m.
Accordingly, Exxon Mobil will start exploration in the North East Amriya block, with a minimum investment of $220m, and the North Marakia block, with a minimum investment of $112m.
El-Molla stressed that the return of Exxon Mobil, one of the largest international companies operating in the oil and gas industry, to work in exploration in Egypt after their long absence, shows the successes achieved by the oil sector during the past period.
Egypt achieved several gas discoveries in the last period, the most prominent of which was the mammoth Zohr gas field, bringing the total production capacity to about 6.5bn feet of gas per day.
The country aims to turn into a regional gas hub, through exploiting the country’s LNG plants in Idku and Damietta, through importing gas from Israel and Cyprus and re-exporting them to other markets.
El-Molla explained that the Exxon Mobil agreements bring the total number of deals with investors to 82 since 2014, with a total minimum investment of about $16bn for the drilling of 340 wells.
