Fresh drilling investments coming our way following concession offering: The UK’s Aten Petroleum, UAE’s Dragon Oil, UK-registered Terra Petroleum, and Romania's CIS Gaz have secured four concessions in an international bid round the Oil Ministry had launched in 2023, the ministry’s Egypt Upstream Gateway said in a statement. The four companies will invest at least USD 71 mn, with a commitment to drill at least 14 wells

The details: The winning quartet will explore for oil and gas in four blocks located in the Western Desert, Eastern Deserts, and the Gulf of Suez under exploration licenses with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation of up to seven years. The firms will be granted 20-year extendable development leases if they make a discovery.

Remember: The ministry’s international bid round that it kicked off in September 2023 offered up 23 blocks in total, spread across the Western Desert, the Gulf of Suez, the Red Sea, and in the Eastern Desert.

More than ever, the government is looking for fresh discoveries: Following a costly fewmonths of energy imports to bridge the gap between local production and demand, the Oil Ministry has been on a mission to start increasing local energy production starting in 2025. In addition to partially clearing arrears to international oil companies since the EGP float in March, the Oil Ministry is offering new incentives to energy players that include increasing production sharing ratios with foreign companies in exchange for new investments, enhancing exploration efforts, and increasing extraction rates with the aim of boosting local production.

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