The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) has announced results of the bid rounds for the exploration and production of oil and natural gas for 2016 in the Gulf of Suez and Western Dessert, Egypt Oil&Gas reported citing a press release. EGPC has accepted six offers from international companies to drill 33 wells in six different areas for a total investment of $200m. The companies that won the bids include Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum (BP), Apache, and Apex International Energy Corporation.

BP is to invest at least $46m to drill three wells in the area northeast of Ramadan, with $5m signing bonus. . Apache was awarded concessions in two areas; in the northwest Razzaq for the total investment of at least $60.6m for the drilling of ten wells, and the southern flag Shawish to drill four wells for $12m in minimum investments, with $30m and $10m signing bonuses for each area respectively. Shell is to drill seven wells in the northern provinces of the country for a total investment of a minimum of $35.5m, with $18m signing bonus. The offer of Apex to drill three wells in West Badr El Din is to reach a minimum investment of $19.4m, in addition to at least $5.26m of investment for six wells in South East Meleiha, with $1.7m and $3.5m in signing bonuses.

The announcement is in line with the Ministry of Petroleum’s strategy to encourage and attract new investments from international players to search for oil and natural gas in order to intensify research and exploration to boost country’s current reserves and increase domestic production of oil and gas.