Egypt has awarded seven international oil companies new areas for oil and gas exploration after an auction in which many specialized companies participated.
The companies are Eni, BP, Apex International, Energean Egypt, INA Naftaplin, Enap Sipetrol and United Energy. They were awarded eight areas for oil and gas exploration through a global bidding process for the companies according to a ministry statement on Monday.
It should be noted that the areas signed by the award are two areas in the Mediterranean, four areas in the Western Desert, as well as two areas in the Gulf of Suez.
The total areas were estimated at about 12.3 thousand square kilometers. The minimum investment in the search periods estimated at about $250 million to drill a minimum of 33 wells, in addition to $23.7 million in signature grants.
A signing grant is a sum of money that companies pay to Egypt when signing contracts.
The bid, which was put forward in February 2021, includes nine areas for research and exploration in the Mediterranean, 12 areas in the Western Desert, and three areas in the Gulf of Suez.
The total investments of the petroleum sector in Egypt, whether locally or by foreign investors, in the projects that have been operated, underway and under study, amounted to about 1.2 trillion pounds during the past seven years, according to data from the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum.
New projects
The new projects that Egypt opened last December raised the country’s production of gasoline by 55% to 6 million tons annually, from 3.9 million tons in 2014.
The bill for subsidizing petroleum products during the first quarter of the current fiscal year 2021-2022 jumped by 76% in Egypt to reach 6.9 billion pounds, compared to 3.9 billion pounds in the first quarter of the 2020-2021 fiscal year, which is mainly represented in subsidizing butanes.
Egypt’s production of crude oil is currently about 575,000 barrels per day.
Egypt became a net exporter of natural gas and liquefied gas in 2018 after the discovery of the giant Zohr gas field, the largest in the Mediterranean. Egypt’s current production of natural gas is between 6.5 to 7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.
