Egyptian Minister of Petroleum, Tarek El Molla, signed 3 new petroleum agreements for the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) with the Italian Egyptian Oil Company (IEOC), a subsidiary of Eni, and UK’s BP. The deals are worth $595m and are for the exploration and production of natural gas and oil, reported Al Borsa News.

El Molla, along with EGPC’s CEO, Tarek El Hadidi, signed the agreements with BP’s Regional CEO, Hisham Mikkawi, and IEOC’s Chairman, Adriano Mongini to incorporate the drilling of 12 new wells to produce more than 1bcf/d of natural gas, reported Amwal Al Ghad.

The first deal is regarding explorations in Nile Delta concession area worth $450m, the second agreement includes El Temsah area, with investments of $85m. The third agreement is related to Ras El Barr concession area, at investments worth $60m.

El Molla stated that signing new petroleum contracts encourages foreign investments in the sector. He added that since 2013, Egypt has signed petroleum exploration agreements with foreign companies with investments estimated at a minimum of $15b, as well as agreed on the drilling 300 wells worth $1b.