The Ismail Cabinet approved a USD 105 mn exploration agreement with Eni - ENTERPRISE

Thursday, 10 May 2018

The Ismail Cabinet approved a USD 105 mn exploration agreement with Eni and the Egypt’s Tharwa to search for oil and gas in the Mediterranean off the coast of north Sinai, according to a cabinet statement. Under the agreement, Eni and Tharwa drill two wells over two stages in the coming six years, Oil Minister Tarek El Molla told reporters on Wednesday. Separately, Eni has reportedly begun drilling the second exploratory well in its South Meleiha concession in the Western Desert’s Faghur Basin, Youm7 reports. Eni had announced last week making an oil discovery from another well in the Faghur Basin, which is expected to deliver 2,300 bop/d of light oil.

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail met yesterday with the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Sultan Jaber, according to a Cabinet statement. The two discussed oil and gas cooperation, as well as increasing Emirati investments in Egypt’s oil refining, petrochemicals, and LNG sectors.

Egypt welcomes natural gas from all countries: PM - EGYPT INDEPENDENT

February 24, 2018, 12:50 pm

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said on Friday that Egypt welcomes any quantities of natural gas from any country for processing in the country’s liquefaction plants.

During a press conference, Ismail said that the natural gas agreement involving Israeli and Egyptian companies is a deal between private sector companies, not governments, but it nevertheless highlights Egypt’s pivotal role in the energy sector and its new role in the region.

He pointed out that the Turkish “harassment” of gas explorers in the Mediterranean Sea has been going on for a long period, saying that, with new gas discoveries, he expects conflicts to impose additional strain in relations between various regional countries.

He added that Egypt is currently working to receive natural gas from Cyprus.

Egypt resolving dispute, holding up $15-billion Israel gas deal - WORLD OIL

FEB/22/2018

ABDEL LATIF WAHBA

CAIRO (Bloomberg) -- Egypt said it was settling financial disputes with an Israeli electricity company and a key pipeline operator to turn a $15-billion deal to import gas from the Jewish state into reality.

The gas deal announced this week had been held up by arbitration rulings ordering Egypt to pay Israel Electric Corp. and East Mediterranean Gas Co. (EMG), which operates a section of pipeline, compensation for canceling an earlier contract.

“We reached an agreement to receive part of the gas in Egypt via its pipelines and this is part of the resolution to the arbitration,” Prime Minister Sherif Ismail told reporters in Cairo when asked about the EMG case. He said an understanding had also been reached with the power company but declined to give more details.

Noble Energy and Delek Drilling-LP announced on Monday they had agreed to export 64 Bcm of natural gas over 10 years to Egyptian company Dolphinus Holdings Ltd. from Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan reservoirs.

The deal adds an economic dimension to a relationship dominated by security and clouded by mutual suspicion since the two countries signed a peace deal four decades ago. It also takes Egypt a step closer to its goal of becoming an energy hub for the East Mediterranean.

FDI in oil and gas sector has hit USD 10 bn so far this fiscal year; El Molla sounding the right note on payments to IOCs, but what about mid-sized players? - ENTERPRISE

Wednesday, 14 February 2018

FDI in oil and gas sector up to USD 10 bn this year: Investment by international oil companies reached USD 10 bn so far in FY2017-18, Oil Minister Tarek El Molla said in an interview with Al Borsa. This will likely increase, as the ministry plans to issue exploration tenders, including in the East Mediterranean and in the Nile Delta region sometime in 2H2017-18, said El Molla. The ministry plans to float tenders in the West Mediterranean once seismic mapping of the area is complete and a marketing strategy for the field has been developed. He added that the Red Sea and South Egypt areas will also see tenders for the very first time once geological data has been collected.

El Molla once again reassured IOCs that Egypt is committed to paying its arrears, noting that they now stand at USD 2.3 bn since the last USD 2 bn payment was made in June 2017. He noted that these were lowest levels of IOC-debt since 2013. (The question remains, though: What about small- and mid-sized players, who have seen their receivables balloon at the same time as the global majors are being paid out?)

Shell plans to drill 63 wells in Egypt in 2018 - EGYPT TODAY

Thu, Oct. 12, 2017

CAIRO – 12 October 2017: Royal Dutch Shell planned to drill 63 wells in Egypt in 2018 at different geological structures in the Western Desert, Shell’s director Andrew Brown announced Thursday.

“This targets increasing oil and gas production volume in the Western Desert,” Brown added.

In a Thursday meeting with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla, Brown explained that Shell’s projects in the next period include Phase 9b in the West Delta Deep Marine Concession with $1.6 billion in total investments.

Brown has also presented plans and recommendations of his company to increase investments in the oil and gas exploration and production.

In June, Shell said it plans to increase investments in oil and gas explorations in Egypt.

Egypt's Zohr gas field to yield 500 mln cubic feet daily by end-2017 - REUTERS AFRICA

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017 / 4:32 PM
Reuters Staff

CAIRO, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Egypt’s giant new offshore Zohr gas field in the Mediterranean is set to be producing 500 million cubic feet per day by the end of 2017, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said on Saturday.

The country imports peak at 10-12 shipments of natural gas per month, Ismail told reporters at the General Authority For Investment, adding that imports should decline significantly once the field starts producing.

Discovered in 2015 by Italy’s Eni with an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, the Zohr field is due to start producing in December.

Manufacturers looking to press gov’t once again on lowering gas prices - ENTERPRISE

Sunday, 27 August 2017

Manufacturers are looking to press the government once again on repricing natural gas to industry, with the Union of Egyptian Investors Associations planning to meet with Oil Ministry officials sometime in the next few days to push for the issue. An official from EGAS tells Al Mal that it is unlikely that the government will respond to their pleas, saying that it imports gas at a price of USD 7 per mmBTU and buys gas from local producers at a price of USD 6 per mmBTU. The official added that the government currently supplies manufacturers with gas at between USD 3-7 per mmBTU, depending on the industry. The Ismail cabinet had made a concession to steel factories last year, promising to lower the price to USD 4.5 from USD 7. Subsidizing inefficient industrial players at the same time as consumers pay more for energy would be political suicide.

Bahr Essalam, Zohr development phases nearing completion - OFFSHORE MAGAZINE

AUG/07/2017

TRIPOLI, Libya – Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi has held talks with two North African leaders concerning major ongoing offshore development projects.

In Tripoli, Descalzi met Fayez al-Sarraj, Head of the Presidential Council of the Libyan government of National Accord, and the president of the state oil company Mustafa Sanalla.

High on the agenda was the second phase of development of the Bahr Essalam field, one of Libya’s largest offshore reservoirs and a source of gas supply for the Greenstream trunkline in the Mediterranean Sea.

Nine of the 10 offshore wells have been drilled, and Eni anticipates first gas in 2018.

Egyptian Prime Minister Sheriff Ismail meets Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi - ENI

Cairo (Egypt), 01 August 2017,17:10

The Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail met today with Eni's CEO Claudio Descalzi.

The meeting, also attended by the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Eng. Tarek El Molla, focused primarily on the future of Zohr's mega field and the positive impact it will have on the national energy economy. Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi outlined the progress being made with the rapid development of the project: thanks to the significant operational synergies that Eni has been able to exploit with its facilities in the area, the development of Zohr is 80% complete less than two years after the discovery was made, a record in the oil industry.

With a potential of 850 billion cubic meters of gas in place, not only will Zohr be able to satisfy almost all of the total domestic gas demand for the coming decades, .it will also allow Egypt to return to being a net energy exporter.

Is Egypt’s Zohr Field A Game Changer? - OILPRICE.com

Jul 29, 2017, 2:00 PM CDT
Shadow Governance Intel

A politically turbulent six-year period has impacted the Egyptian business environment, adding a new layer of political risks to investments made across the national economy. Despite this, the outlook in certain sectors is largely positive; and the gas sector may be one of the first to see profitability.

With the third largest gas reserves in Africa, behind Algeria and Nigeria, and the 17th largest globally, international interest has always existed in Egypt’s gas sector. However, management of gas pipelines has been a controversial issue, leading to concerns over how viable the industry is set to be once fully developed under President Sisi.

Egypt to open new areas in Red Sea for oil, gas exploration - BUSINESS STANDARD

Cairo July 14, 2017, 04:52 IST
IANS

Egyptian Petroleum Minister Tarek el-Mulla said on Thursday that new areas in the Red Sea will be open for bidding for exploration as part of Egypt's effort to expand oil, gas production.

Mulla did not disclose the exact date for the bidding. He told a news conference that the bidding comes after the recent approval of the Egyptian-Saudi maritime border demarcation deal, in which Egypt agrees to transfer two Red Sea islands in the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia, Xinhua reported.

Earlier on Thursday, Mulla and Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail held a meeting to discuss a number of issues, including the latest deals and bids that aim to increase the country's crude oil and natural gas production, the official news agency MENA reported.

Egypt raises fuel prices by up to 50% under IMF deal - HYDROCARBON PROCESSING / REUTERS

6/29/2017Reporting by Abdelrahman Adel; Additional reporting by Amina Ismail; writing by Patrick Markey; editing by Mark Heinrich

CAIRO (Reuters) — Egypt on Thursday hiked fuel prices by up to 50% to help meet terms of a $12 B IMF loan deal, a sharper rise than expected by many struggling with soaring living costs and a further test of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's popularity.

Fuel price increases had been widely anticipated as part of Egypt's loan accord with the International Monetary Fund and Thursday's measures were the second rise since the government floated the pound currency in November.

Government officials say spending cuts will help revive an economy where subsidies have accounted for about a quarter of state expenditures. But austerity carries risks for Sisi as inflation and a contested deal to hand two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia have eroded his public standing.

Smaller companies could miss out on IOC payments; all IOCs to be paid by 2019 - ENTERPRISE

Thursday, 18 May 2017

Smaller oil and gas operators may miss out on the second wave of payments to international oil companies (IOCs) the central bank is planning on dishing out, LeAnne Graves writes for The National. Governor Tarek Amer had said Egypt had made a payment of USD 750 mn to IOCs and will make a similar payment by 1 June. With both payments, Egypt’s arrears to IOCs would be brought down to USD 1.5 bn. “One small operator in Egypt, pumping about 10,000 barrels of oil per day, said payments from the government came in [EGP] with a ‘dribble of [USD]’. The executive, who asked not to be named, said some vendors were taking [EGP], but the firm didn’t have enough to pay anyone who wanted [USD],” Graves writes. Allen Sandeep at Naeem’s research arm expects “the amounts that would be paid per IOC would be proportionate to their part of the total outstanding amount of [USD 3.5 bn] as a whole.”

President Sisi underlines importance of developing Egypt’s petroleum sector - ENERGY EGYPT / STATE INFORMATION SERVICE

April 23, 2017

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi highlighted on Thursday 20/04/2017 the importance of developing the petroleum and mineral wealth sector in Egypt, as a cornerstone of national economy.

During a meeting with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and Petroleum Minister Tarek el-Molla, the president urged attracting more foreign investments in this field.

He also highlighted the necessity of accelerating efforts for starting production of natural gas in recently discovered fields and removing all obstacles facing developers and investors in these fields, Presidential Spokesman Alaa Youssef said.

Prime Minister, Minister of Petroleum meet with Shell Upstream International Director - ENERGY EGYPT / EGYPT'S MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM

 

April 9, 2017

Egyptian Prime Minister, Eng. Sherif Ismail, met with Andrew Brown, Upstream International Director at Shell in the presence of Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, and Eng. Gasser Hanter, Country Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell Egypt, to discuss existing and potential opportunities in Egypt’s oil and gas exploration.

The meeting included a report about the company’s work in Egypt and the existing opportunities in gas exploration. Prime Minister confirmed that the Egyptian oil and gas sector is a promising industry with a great future. Additionally, the government is keen to increase the profit of natural minerals and to better manage these resources. The government is also promoting mineral developments to attract further investments.

Egypt to begin production from Zohr gas field by late 2017: Rosneft CEO - AHRAM ONLINE

Egypt's president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi during a meeting
with CEOs of Rosneft, Eni, BP

Tuesday 28 Mar 2017
Mahmoud Aziz

The CEO of Rosneft, the majority state-owned Russian oil company, said on Monday that the first gas production from Egypt's super giant Zohr gas field is scheduled by the end of 2017, according to state-run news agency MENA.

Igor Sechin's statement came during a meeting with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Prime Minister Sherif Ismail on Monday evening.

Discovered in August 2015 by Italian oil company Eni, Zohr is the largest natural gas field ever found in the Mediterranean, with an estimated 850 billion cubic metres of gas.

Last December, Rosneft agreed to acquire a 30-percent share of the Shorouk concession, which contains the Zohr gas field.

Dolphinus in talks to import gas from Israel’s Tamar field - ENTERPRISE / AL MAL

Tuesday, 21 March 2017

Representatives from major shareholders in the Tamar gas field in Israel were reportedly here over the weekend to discuss exporting gas to Egypt through Dolphinus Holdings, according to unsubstantiated reports from Masrawy picked up by Al Mal. Tamar field shareholders, including Delek, Noble, and Isramco, had reportedly agreed to supply 60 bcf from the Israeli field through a pipeline and had been here to iron out the details. 

The Future of Egypt’s Refining & Petrochemical Industry - WORLD REFINING ASSOCIATION

Download here: The Future of Egypt's Down Stream Industry Report

Egypt is currently the largest oil producer in Africa outside of OPEC and the second largest natural gas producer after Algeria. Egypt, having already taken on a major role in international energy markets is now seeking to get its downstream industry back on track.

Egypt has great potential when it comes to refining and petrochemicals. It is an important transit route, offering great potential to become a hub for petroleum products. Nonetheless, since the Arab spring uprising of 2011 that saw the overthrowing of President Hosni Mubarak, great tolls have been taken on the domestic oil, gas and petrochemical industries.

Eni and BP complete 10% sale of Shorouk, offshore Egypt - WORLD OIL

2/13/2017

CAIRO -- Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi, Bob Dudley, CEO of BP, and the Egyptian Minister of Petroleum, Tarek El Molla signed a deed completing the sale to BP of a 10% stake in the Shorouk concession, offshore Egypt. The signing took place in Cairo in the presence of the Prime Minister Sherif Ismail. Eni and BP first agreed on the sale of the concession stake, where the super-giant Zohr gas field is located, in November 2016. Eni, through its subsidiary IEOC, now holds a 90% stake in the license, while Rosneft has agreed to acquire a 30% stake, subject to the Egyptian governmental approval.

Additionally, Claudio Descalzi has been received by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The meeting follows the one held in January during which Eni’s CEO confirmed that the development of Zohr is progressing very quickly, having been fast tracked, and that the start of production is confirmed for 2017, just two year after the discovery was made.

Prime Minister calls on Petroleum Ministry to swiftly complete oil, gas development projects - DAILY NEWS EGYPT

Wednesday January 18, 2017
Mohamed Ayyad
Gas self-sufficiency to be achieved by end of 2019, says prime minister

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail called on the Minister of Petroleum to quickly complete the development projects of discovered fields in order to increase the local production of crude oil and gas, and relieve the pressure on foreign exchange resources.

During his visit to the Petroleum Ministry on Wednesday, Ismail said that Egypt will achieve natural gas self-sufficiency by the end of 2019. The prime minister stressed the importance of intensifying exploration and research works during the upcoming phase.

Ismail also stressed the importance of delivering natural gas to homes as this would improve the services offered to citizens and provide the necessary amount of butane, 50% of which is imported.