Egypt Awards 4 Offshore Oil, Gas Exploration Licences
CAIRO, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Egypt has awarded four new licences to explore for oil and gas off its Mediterranean coast, weeks after Eni's giant Zohr gas find piqued fresh international interest in the area.
Egypt's state gas company EGAS said in a statement it had awarded one licence to Britain's BP and one to Italy's Edison. A consortium involving BP and Eni's Egyptian subsidiary had also picked up a bloc as had another consortium involving Eni, BP and France's Total.
EGAS head Khaled Abdel Badie told Reuters after the announcement that Egypt was preparing to launch a new bidding round for offshore gas exploration in the Mediterranean in the first half of 2016.
Eni announced in late August it had discovered the largest known gas field in the Mediterranean off the Egyptian coast.
The Italian major predicts the Zohr field could hold 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, covering an area of about 100 square kilometres (39 square miles). It could be a game-changer for Egypt, whose $3.5 billion debts to foreign energy companies had made it increasingly difficult to attract major investments.
Egypt, which once exported gas, has become a net energy importer over the last few years as production has failed to keep up with domestic demand.
Not only has Egypt diverted to the domestic market gas originally earmarked for export, but it has failed to keep up payments to the foreign energy companies producing it.
The crisis had discouraged international energy companies from making major investments in Egypt's oil and gas sector at a time when it needed to make new discoveries and boost output.
The Zohr find, however, is likely to encourage oil majors to look more carefully at the eastern Mediterranean region, which has yielded some significant discoveries in recent years.
The EGAS statement said the new concessions would see the companies making total investments of at least $306 million, conducting seismic studies and sinking eight discovery wells.
(Reporting by Abdel Rahman Adel, writing by Lin Noueihed, editing by Adrian Croft and David Evans)
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.
- Weatherford CEO's Rebound Plan Relies On Getting Smaller
- Iran Says Oil Market Is Too Tight For US Zero Exports Target
- China's Squeezed 'Teapots' Eye Petchem Path To Riches
- Baker Hughes: US Drillers Add Oil Rigs For Second Week In Three
- Venezuela Hands China More Oil Presence, But No Mention Of New Funds
- Falcon Oil Declares Commercial Flow Test Results for Shenandoah Well
- Macquarie Strategists Expect Brent Oil Price to Grind Higher
- Japan Failing to Meet Corporate Demand for Clean Power: Amazon
- UK Oil Regulator Publishes New Emissions Reduction Plan
- Pennsylvania County Joins List of Local Govts Suing Big Oil over Climate
- PetroChina Posts Higher Annual Profit on Higher Production
- McDermott Settles Reficar Dispute
- US, SKorea Launch Task Force to Stop Illicit Refined Oil Flows into NKorea
- Russian Navy Enters Warship-Crowded Red Sea Amid Houthi Attacks
- USA Commercial Crude Oil Inventories Increase
- New China Climate Chief Says Fossil Fuels Must Keep a Role
- Oil Demand Outpaces Expectations, Testing Calculus on Peak Crude
- House Passes Protecting American Energy Production Act
- TotalEnergies Restarts Production in Denmark's Biggest Gas Field
- USA Oil and Gas Job Figures Jump
- Republican Lawmakers Say IEA Has Abandoned Energy Security Mission
- Blockchain Demands Attention in Oil and Gas
- Houthis Warn Saudi Arabia of Retaliation If It Backs USA Attacks
- Macquarie Sees USA Oil Production Exiting 2024 at 14MM Barrels Per Day
- Summer Pump Prices Set to Hit $4 a Gallon Just as Americans Hit the Road
- New China Climate Chief Says Fossil Fuels Must Keep a Role
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Major Oilfield Discovery
- VIDEO: Missile Attack Kills Crew Transiting Gulf of Aden
- Norway Regulator Blasts Proposal to Halt New Oil and Gas Permits
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Another Major Oilfield Discovery
- What Is the Biggest Risk to Offshore Oil and Gas Personnel in 2024?
- Vessel Sinks in Red Sea After Missile Strike
- Exxon Rights in Stabroek Do Not Apply to Hess Merger with Chevron: Hess
- Equinor Makes Discovery in North Sea
- Analysts Reveal Latest Oil Price Outlook Following OPEC+ Cut Extension