Egypt’s first foreign oil search

CAIRO, October 1, 2015 – Egypt’s oil minister announced on Wednesday that for the first time, the North African country would explore outside its own borders for oil.

The state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation bought a 10-percent stake in Iraq’s block 9, located near the southern city of Basra, from the Kuwaiti oil and gas company Kuwait Energy. Today’s deal finalises an agreement originally signed in March between the two companies at the Egypt Economic Development Conference.

Kuwait Energy’s Faihaa-1 exploration well in block 9 struck oil in September of last year, and production is expected to start this month with initial rates of 5,000 barrels of oil per day. Production is scheduled to increase to 150,000 barrels of oil per day by 2021. Reserves in the oilfield are estimated at 7 billion barrels.

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