The Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, stated in a press release that Egypt is focusing on increasing the country’s strategic reserves and production in the oil and gas sector. The government is working on multiple facets to address these issues including extensive oil and gas exploration projects for both onshore and offshore fields through international tenders. The Ministry aims to diversify supply to the local market by expediting enhancements in the production of existing discoveries and connecting them to domestic distribution hubs.

El Molla comments came during a general assembly to review Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company’s (GUPCO) fiscal results for 2015/2016.

GUPCO’s production during the fiscal year was 10.4m barrels of oil and 18.5bcf of gas. The company drilled 15 new oil wells with a daily production of 14,000 barrels. GUPCO installed the Helal marine platform, which resulted in 3 new wells in Tor Sinaa area, with a production capacity of 4,000b/d. The organization is working on increasing production in Helal, Sakara, October, and July oils fields. Moreover, The company was able to rationalize its annual spending by 5m.

The assembly was attended by the Petroleum Ministry’s First Undersecretaries, Mohamed Taher and Mohamed Moanes, as well as Egyptian General Petroleum Company’s Chairman, Tarek Al Hadidi, and Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company’s President, Mohamed El Masry.