Cheiron has signed with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) an agreement for oil exploration and production in the East Gemsa offshore area in the Gulf of Suez. The deal, which covers the drilling of four new wells, involves overall investments exceeding $30 million, in addition to a $1 million signature bonus.

The agreement was signed in attendance of Karim Badawi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Ihab Regaei, First Undersecretary of the MoPMR for Production for the ministry, and Samir Raslan, Undersecretary of the MoPMR for Agreements and Exploration.

The deal represents a successful partnership model with the Egyptian private sector, encouraging greater investment in oil exploration and production as part of the Ministry’s initiative to expand private-sector participation, said Badawi.

He noted that both the Western Desert and the Gulf of Suez offer promising opportunities for crude oil exploration and production. In September, EGPC signed three new agreements with international companies to explore for oil and gas in the Western Desert, Gulf of Suez, and North Sinai regions with total investments of over $121 million.

Established in the late 1980s, Cheiron (formerly known as PICO International Petroleum and then as the PICO Cheiron Group) has since evolved into Egypt’s largest independent E&P company with assets in the Western and Eastern Deserts as well as the Nile Delta and the Gulf of Suez regions.

In November, Cheiron brought online the West El-Burullus (WEB) gas field with an estimated output of around 45 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d), following the connection of the first wells to the national grid. It is expected that the field’s output will reach  75 mmcf/d in 2026.