The Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, has signed nine new agreements worth more than $1 billion with six international and Egyptian companies for drilling 17 new exploration wells to search for petroleum and natural gas in the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea.

El Molla stated that the signed agreements are part of 12 new agreements with investments of about $1.4 billion that were reached during Coronavirus pandemic, to drill 23 new wells in nine areas in the Mediterranean, in addition to three areas in the Red Sea, pointing out that the remaining three agreements are to be signed soon.

El Molla also assured that his ministry’s strategy to promote investment opportunities was the reason for its success to attract huge international companies to invest in Egypt such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, and Total. He also added that the participation of the Egyptian Tharwa Petroleum company opens the door for Egyptian companies to expand their gas exploration operations in deep water.

The signed exploration agreements include seven agreements that were signed by the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co. – EGAS. The first one was with Exxon Mobil to search in the North Marquia marine area in the Mediterranean and another with Chevron and its partner Tharwa Petroleum to search in the North Sidi Barrani area. The third one was with Chevron and its partner Tharwa to search in the Narges marine area in the Mediterranean with a minimum investment of $110 to drill two wells. The fourth agreement is with Chevron and its partner Tharwa  for searching in North Dabaa and a fifth agreement with Exxon Mobil  and Tharwa for exploration works in Star area in the Mediterranean, while a sixth agreement was signed with BP and Tharwa for exploration in North Saloum in the Mediterranean. The seventh exploration agreement was with Total and its partners to explore North Ras Kanays in the Mediterranean.

Two oil exploration agreements were signed by Ganoub El Wadi Petroleum Holding Company (Ganope). One of them was with  Shell and its partner Tharwa, and the other is between Ganope and Chevron and its partner Tharwa for exploration in the Red Sea.