Egypt Oil & Gas (EOG) held its first webinar on July 1, under the title of “Egypt’s Oil and Gas Sector Pandemic and Commodity Price Crash” to discuss how the coronavirus and oil prices affected the sector’s operation as well as the market and cast the light over the procedures taken by companies to navigate through these crises.

The webinar was moderated by the President and CEO of Apex International Energy Thomas Maher. Speakers at the webinar included Abed Ezz El Regal, CEO of the Egyptian General Petroleum Company; Sameh Sabry, Vice President (VP) and Managing Director of Wintershall Dea – Egypt; Colby Fuser VP of Halliburton – Egypt and Libya; and Nicolas Katcharov, Vice President Operations MENA Edison SpA.

Ezz El Regal commenced the webinar saying that the government has taken several procedures to contain such crisis by balancing between reducing the workforce and keeping the production at the same levels. “Also, the government has reduced the price of oil and gas for the industries to help all the value chain,” he added.

For his side, Sabry said that his company has dealt with these crises efficiently by putting two clear priorities. The first priority was how to protect employees while the second one was how to maintain the production globally at stable levels in addition to take the needed measures to manage the economic and logistical obstacles to maintain good progress of the projects.

He noted that Wintershall Dea is working again to explore in Egypt elaborating that they are preparing for five to seven well drilling campaigns in East Damanhour block.

For Fuser his company is collaborating with the customers and the petroleum ministry to manage such crises. He referred to his company’s  costs reduction, saying “we have brought in new technology to lower overall customer’s costs and complete wells that maximize the asset value.”

Katcharov said that Edison tracked many ways to optimize investments to pass through the current challenges; from reducing the number of workforce to using remote working and digital tools which helped in cost reduction and business continuity. He explained that “we will be very carefully screening to catch the strategic exploration opportunities in gas potential for preparing our growth in the future.”