Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tariq Al-Mulla, signed three new agreements for oil and gas exploration in the Western Desert of Egypt with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and the American companies Apache and Merlon, with a minimum investment of about $79 million, a statement from the ministry said on Saturday.
The first and second agreements were signed with Apache in the concession area northwest of Razak in the Western Desert with investments of about $61 million, and the concession area south of al-Shawish in the Western Desert with investments of $12 million, while the third agreement with Merlon Company in the Fayoum concession in Western Desert with investments of about $6 million.
Following the agreement signings, Mulla said that the ministry’s strategy aims to attract more foreign investments in the field of oil and gas exploration, which will contribute to exploiting the oil and gas potential of several regions in the country.
He pointed out that Egypt witnessed a large inflow of investment from international oil companies in the wake of the June 30 revolution. Investors sought work in Egypt through new agreements or promotional investment projects of discovered fields, which led to important and promising discoveries especially in the Mediterranean region.
Mulla said that the oil sector succeeded in finishing 79 new agreements for oil and gas exploration, with investments of about $15.3 billion minimum.
He stressed that the oil sector prioritized expediting agreement procedures and concluding them for speedy implementation. This objective is part of the oil sector development and modernization project.
He added that American companies are an important partner and a key player in the production of oil and gas in Egypt and that the Western Desert region is one of the most important areas of interest to US companies, which contributed to the continued outstanding results for oil activity in that region.
Edited Translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
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