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The Madbouly government is looking to boost local investment in the oil and gas sector in efforts to restore production to previous levels, a government source told EnterpriseAM. The government is weighing fresh incentives for local investors, the source added.
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Local companies are set to take part in an upcoming Oil Ministry tender, covering new fields and fresh exploration areas — including blocks being offered for the first time — as well as mature fields slated to be put back on the market.
We have an idea which companies will be involved: A Hassan Allam Holding-Infinity Power consortium, Ezz Steel, Elsewedy Industrial Development, and Ades Holding last year inked agreements to ramp up oil and natural gas exploration alongside production and field development. The players will establish specialist subsidiaries to operate in upstream oil and gas.
On the foreign side: Egypt has launched an international tender for seismic survey companies to carry out advanced mapping over 100k sqm in the East Mediterranean, as part of efforts to assess gas reserves and accelerate new discoveries, Asharq Business reports citing an unnamed government source
The government will not cover the cost of the surveys. Instead, the companies awarded the contracts will recover costs by charging international oil and gas firms for access to the survey data packages, seeing as they are interested in exploration and drilling. Under the tender, more than a single company will be selected, with the target area split into defined blocks to be scanned according to a fixed schedule to speed up the timeline, they said.
Small and mid-sized players stand to benefit the most from the survey, the source said, adding that the new data will open up fresh exploration windows in the East Med without requiring them to bear the full cost of seismic work. “Companies will save at least 60% of the cost of conducting their own seismic surveys,” they added.
The East Med is Egypt’s most productive natural gas region, accounting for 62% of output, followed by the Nile Delta at 19% and the Western Desert at 18%, Asharq said, citing Oil Ministry data. Some 20 companies currently operate in the East Med.
