Tarek El-Molla, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, signed on Monday an agreement with Abed Ezz El-Regal, CEO of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, and David Chi, Vice President of American Apache and General Manager of Egypt operations, under which the company will invest $3.5bn on research, exploration, development and production in the concession areas of the Western Desert.
The agreement comes within the framework of the joint development and modernization efforts between the two sides by merging the concession areas of Khalda and Qarun Petroleum Companies, which are in charge of operations on behalf of the Petroleum Authority and Apache. This would eventually raise efficiency, create optimal investment of resources and achieve excellence in light of the current changes.
In 2021, seven petroleum agreements were signed, with a total non-refundable signature grant of $16m, and a minimum investment of about $1.223bn. Additionally, 14 wells were drilled.
The petroleum sector has managed to make great progress to advance investment in the oil and gas exploration in Egypt to develop petroleum wealth and make new discoveries The digital marketing platform, Egypt Upstream Gateway, was launched globally on 17 February 2021, a year after the contract was signed with year from signing the contract with Schlumberger International. This step is in line with the state’s trend to support digital transformation.
Egypt launched the first two global bids on the Egypt Gateway for Digital Exploration and Production platform in February 2021 for 24 regions in the eastern and western Mediterranean, the Western Desert and the Gulf of Suez.
Necessary measures are taken to issue 11 new petroleum agreements, with a total signature grant of $177.3m, a minimum investment of about $5.3bn, and the drilling of 39 wells.
