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The head of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation announced the winners of 12 new concessions at an event in Cairo on Tuesday, stating that $750 million to $800 million worth of investments would be made.
The General Petroleum Company (GPC) won a $5 million tender to explore in the West Amer sector, allowing it to drill 10 new wells, involving a total investment of $20 million.
Neptune Energy Egypt won an $11 million concession for the drilling of three wells and a financial commitment of $ 34.5 million. Merlon Petroleum won a $3.2 million tender to drill eight wells and an investment of $36 million.
Shell Egypt won three separate concessions. The first is a $27 million tender in the West Fayoum field, involving the drilling of six wells, the second is a $23 million tender to dig five wells south-east of Horus and the third is a $1 million tender to drill three wells in South Abu Sinan. Combined, the tenders involve a capital commitment to invest $57 million.
IEOC Production won a $1.15 million tender to dig four wells in the south east Sewa region, with a total investment value of $17 million, and Exxon Mobil, BP, Total, Shell and Petronas won the Sector 3 North East Amreya Marine project, with a $10 million tender, involving a technical commitment to 2 well and a financial commitment for an investment of $100 million.
Petronas also won a $10 million tender with PG Global for sector 4 in the Sidi Gaber marine area, involving a commitment to drill one well, a a seismic survey of 1,500 square kilometers and a financial commitment of $60 million. The same two companies also won the $3 million, Sector 6 North Navarre tender involving a technical commitment to conduct a seismic survey of 2250 square kilometers and a financial commitment of $9 million.
DEA Group secured an $11 million tender for sector 10 in the eastern region of Damanhour, committing to drill seven wells and investment $28 million.
IEOC and BP also secured a tender worth $5 million to drill two wells at West Sherbin, with a capital commitment of $18 million.
The awarding of exploration rights follow an announcement made by EGPC to open a bidding round for companies to begin exploration for oil and gas in a number of onshore and offshore exploration blocks in the Gulf of Suez, the Western Desert and the Eastern Desert.
Following the awards, Egypt’s minister of petroleum, Tariq Al Mulla, told Zawya that the EGYPS conference allowed foreign firms the opportunity “to narrate their success stories in the work of the Egyptian oil sector”.
He added that this would help to attract investment “and encourage new companies to enter Egypt's gas and petroleum sector ".
In a statement announcing its three concession wins on Thursday, Shell Egypt’s vice-president and country chairman, Gasser Hander, said the firm was “committed to start the exploration operations as soon as possible after final ratification, and will strive to bring any commercial discoveries onstream in record time, similar to what we did in our North Um Baraka concession where first gas was brought onstream only six months after the concession award and only 40 days after discovery”.
(Reporting by Marwa Abo Almajd; Editing by Michael Fahy)
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