Ganoub El Wadi Petroleum Holding Company GANOPE agreed, during an assembly meeting, that the company should expand its activities to include unconventional sources of energy during the coming period. The meeting was presided over by the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El-Molla. This decision came in the framework of the government’s drive to diversify Egypt’s energy mix through new sources of energy, reported Egypt Oil & Gas.

Also at the meeting was Mustafa Yusri, Governor of Aswan, Sherif Soussa, the First Undersecretary of the Petroleum Ministry, EGPC Chairman, Mohamed Al-Masry, and Abdul Fattah Abdel Aziz, First Undersecretary of the Central Auditing Organization.

GANOPE Chairman Abu Bakr Ibrahim pointed out that this move is a step towards utilizing geothermal energy to generate electricity, in cooperation with the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA). He added that technical and economic feasibility studies were in preparation of a particularly promising site in the Red Sea, of a south of the Gulf of Suez.

He explained that GANOPE had already signed a memorandum of understanding with Emirati Inmaa Al Ain for Development and Investment for the establishment of slew of economic projects in the Gulf of Suez annex worth $3.5b, funded by Al Ain, to build a solar and wind or clean coal power plant and a desalination plant. There will also be an industrial zone for specialized companies to maximize value added for the mineral ores available in the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea.