On the sidelines of the Ministerial Meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Doha, Karim Badawi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, met a number of senior Qatari officials to discuss incentives adopted by Egypt’s petroleum sector to attract more foreign investments in gas exploration activities.

The Qatari officials include  Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Saad Al-Kaabi, Qatari Minister of State for Energy Affairs and President and chief executive officer (CEO) of QatarEnergy.

During the meeting, they also discussed QatarEnergy’s growing investments in Egypt, including its partnerships in gas upstream concessions in the Mediterranean Sea.

In October, QatarEnergy signed a deal with Shell to acquire a 27% participating interest in the North Cleopatra block offshore Egypt. Accordingly, Shell will retain a 36% participating interest in the Block as operator. While other companies, US Chevron and Tharwa Petroleum Company, hold participating interests of 27% and 10% respectively.

The North Cleopatra Block is located in the Herodotus basin and covers an area of over 3,400 square kilometres in water depths of up to 2,600 meters. It is north and adjacent to the North El-Dabaa block, where QatarEnergy also holds a 23% participating interest. The North Cleopatra block was awarded to Shell Egypt in 2021 through a production and sharing agreement.