Egypt bid round winners talk strategy

Results were announced last week in Egypt’s latest licensing round, with stakes awarded to Eni, bp, Apex International, Energean Egypt, INA Nafta, Enap Sipetrol and United Energy.

For more on the winning companies’ exploration strategies, read our latest interviews with:

• bp’s Karim Alaa
• Apex’s Thomas Maher
• Energean’s Nicolas Katcharov

The 2021 bid round was a milestone for Egyptian licensing as it was the first to be held through the widely lauded Egypt Upstream Gateway digital platform.

Eni was the big winner with five licences. While the Ministry of Petroleum confirmed a total of eight licences had been awarded, information on the three remaining blocks was not available as of Monday.

Eni’s licences include:

EGY-MED-E5 – Eni (50%), bp (50%)

EGY-MED-E6 – Eni (100%)

EGY-GOS-13 – Eni subsidiary IEOC (100%)

EGY-WD-7 – Eni (50%), Apex (50%)

EGY-WD-9 – IEOC (100%)

“The bid results are aligned with Eni’s strategy to keep exploring and producing gas to sustain the Egyptian domestic market and contribute to LNG export, thanks to the recent restart of the Damietta LNG plant,” the company said in a press release.

Meanwhile, international media quoted Karim Alaa, bp’s regional president for North Africa, as saying the EGY-MED-E5 award, located close to existing bp infrastructure, would support the company’s strategy for expanding exploration and supplying the country’s growing domestic gas market.