Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Wealth signed two agreements for oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Suez region and the Western Desert on Monday with an aim to increase Egypt’s daily output and reserve replacement rates to supply the local market’s energy needs.

Egypt signs two exploration agreements

CAIRO, December 9, 2015 – Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Wealth signed two agreements for oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Suez region and the Western Desert on Monday with an aim to increase Egypt’s daily output and reserve replacement rates to supply the local market’s energy needs.

The first, a $9-million deal with Tunisian developer HPS Oil & Gas for the drilling of four wells in Halif in Egypt’s Western desert, is one of 63 exploration deals with foreign companies worth a total of $14.3 billion, said Minister Tarek El Mollah. The second agreement is with Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation to develop the Gazorina oilfield in the Gulf of Suez.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, the country is the largest oil and gas consumer in Africa, with oil demand growing at an average of 3 percent each year over the past 10 years. The country consumed 813,000 barrels of oil per day in 2014 according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.

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