South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Company (Ganope) surveyed 4,200 km of Red Sea water out of 10,000 km, in addition to other areas in Upper Egypt, according to the company’s Head, Mohamed Shimy, Egypt Oil & Gas reports.

The company is now working on marketing the collected data to attract investors and start exploration at the studied areas, Shimy added in a meeting with the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla.

“Surveying the Red Sea will enable Egypt, for the first time, to put forward international bids for oil and gas exploration at this area,” El Molla commented during the meeting. The minister believes that this project will “redraw the map of investment in Upper Egypt and contribute to increase the reserves and production rates of oil and gas.”

The ministry is working intensively on supplying Upper Egypt’s needs of gas and petroleum products and facilities, especially linking houses to the national gas grid, a project which is given special attention from president Abdel Fattah El Sisi, El Molla noted. The development of Upper Egypt is one of the main pillars of Egypt’ Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt 2030, established by the president.

The meeting aimed at approving Ganope’s budget plan for fiscal year (FY) 2018/2019. It was attended by El Molla, Shimy, undersecretaries of the ministy, the Chairman of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), the Head of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), the Head of Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM), the Deputy of Accountability State Authority, the President of South Valley University, and the Vice President of National Investment Bank.