Eni plans 230 new wells in Egypt over 2026-2027 as country races to slow gas decline

Eni plans to drill 30 exploration wells and 200 development wells in Egypt during the next phase of its investment program, CEO Claudio Descalzi told President Abdel Fattah El Sisi during a meeting in El Alamein. The work is set to cover Eni’s Mediterranean and Western Desert acreage over 2026 and 2027. Eni also said its cumulative investment in Egypt has reached USD 8.5 bn.

The timing matters: The government is trying to get more gas out of the ground as quickly as possible to slow the decline in domestic production and reduce its growing reliance on costly LNG imports. The Oil Ministry has already opened talks with Greece’s Energean and UAE-based Adnoc Drilling on expanding investment, accelerating field development, and securing additional drilling capacity, while targeting 160 new oil and gas wells this fiscal year. It is not yet clear whether Eni’s planned 230 wells fall within that ministry-wide target or come on top of it.

Rewarding local production

The Industry Ministry is studying a proposed “Qima” certification system that would grade manufacturers and link state incentives and procurement advantages to their local-content contribution, supplier development, technology investment, and R&D, Industry Minister Khaled Hashem said in a statement. The proposal would move the government’s local-product preference regime beyond a single minimum local-content threshold, with bids potentially evaluated using an adjusted price that reflects a company’s Qima score.

The reform could encourage deeper localization, but it needs to account for wide differences between industries, Bassim Youssef, head of the Egyptian Federation of Industries’ Local Manufacturing Deepening and Promotion Committee, tells EnterpriseAM. Raw materials and metals can make up around 50% of local content in some industries, so a uniform benchmark would not work across all sectors, he argues.

The government should first strengthen incentives for feeder industries, where supply remains limited and quality can be inconsistent, while also tackling unfair competition from informal producers that do not bear the same tax, ins., and standards-compliance costs, Youssef says. Under the 2015 law, industrial products with at least 40% local content are eligible for preferential treatment in government tenders.

A second graduate from the SME market

Future Care for Medical Industries (FCMI) started trading on the EGX’s main board yesterday, graduating from the SME market after 14 years, according to a bourse statement. The disposable medical materials maker, formerly known as International Company for Medical Industries, had to double its capital to EGP 115.2 mn — up from EGP 57.7 mn — to clear the EGP 100 mn minimum and qualify for a main-market listing. The jump opens FCMI up to a wider investor pool, putting the stock within reach of index and institutional mandates that don’t extend to the SME board.

This is the second company to complete a main-market transfer this year. Non-bank lender Tawasoa for Factoring filed in May for both a capital increase to qualify and a transfer out of the SME market. It started trading on the main board in June, around seven months after a November 2025 debut. The move lands as the EGX pitches the SME market as an incubator for businesses to graduate to the main board. Last week, Chairman Omar Radwan inked an executive decision waiving administrative service fees for the first 20 companies that complete their SME-listing requirements by the end of next month.

MARKET REAX- FCMI’s stock rose 0.8% to roughly EGP 7.4 on its first day of trading on the main market.

Turning bagasse to gas

Italy’s Proger and Drexel are planning a USD 278 mn project to turn sugarcane bagasse into second-generation bioethanol, according to an Investment Ministry statement. The project would target European markets with a large share of its output, drawing on locally available bagasse — the fibrous residue left after cane is processed into sugar — to create an export-oriented green-fuels industry.

IN CONTEXT- If this plant goes ahead, it would add to a growing bioethanol lineup that includes a planned USD 400 mn bagasse-based project at state-owned Egyptian Sugar and Integrated Industries Company’s (ESIIC) Kom Ombo complex with Eni and Proger, as well as a USD 112 mn molasses-to-bioethanol plant under development by the Egyptian Bioethanol Company.

Digitally identify yourself

SIM verification goes digital: Orange Egypt, Vodafone Egypt, and e& Egypt are rolling out electronic identity verification services that allow customers to complete SIM-related transactions remotely using their national IDs and facial recognition technology, the companies said in separate statements. The services verify customers’ identities and SIM possession before allowing them to electronically sign the required contracts and documents, removing the need for branch visits for supported transactions. Orange’s service also allows corporate customers to activate new lines digitally while verifying the identity of their actual users.

More details coming today: The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) will hold a press conference today to formally launch the biometric electronic verification system and outline how it works and the services it will support, Youm7 reports. The rollout follows reports of mobile lines being registered under customers’ national IDs without their knowledge, prompting the NTRA to tighten SIM registration and identity verification rules. The regulator referred the country’s four mobile operators to the Public Prosecution earlier this month over alleged violations related to SIM registration and activation.

The rollout will be phased: The NTRA developed the system with ITIDA, CyShield, and licensed electronic-signature providers, with the communications and interior ministries providing the regulatory framework and integration infrastructure, the authority said in a statement. The system is launching in a pilot phase, with mobile operators rolling it out based on their technical readiness before expanding to more services and transactions.

More on our radar:

• The Tax Authority has standardized the departure levy for foreign nationals at EGP 100, replacing varying rates that applied in certain cases and following requests from tourism companies to simplify procedures. (Statement)
• Nasser Social Bank (NSB) is reopening its school-fee financing product ahead of the 2026/27 academic year, covering up to 100% of tuition costs for parents, guardians, pensioners, and private- and public-sector employees. (Mubasher)
• Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk has set rules for registering experts and valuers with the Egyptian Apparatus for the Management and Disposal of Recovered and Seized Assets, requiring individual applicants to be Egyptian nationals with relevant qualifications. (Statement)

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background as well as external sources.)