Ganoub El Wadi Holding Petroleum Co. (GANOPE) singed a deal with the Indian Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) by which the latter was awarded three new concessions in the area of South Valley in Egypt, with a minimum estimated investment worth 8 million.

Hany Nassar, Vice Chairman for Exploration and Agreement in GANOPE, declared that the deal with the Indian state-owned company was singed for exploration in South Sinai field, south of El-Kosseir as well as south of Gulf of Suez, throughout the coming seven years. Nassar expects that the results of those three concessions will lead to great successes during the exploration period.

“This new agreement serves GANOPE’s policy to boost exploration during the first quarter of 2009,” Nassar added.

However, Nassar believes that the financial crisis has a bad effect on the exploration and prospecting locally since Egypt is one of the targeted areas by major global companies because of its reduced costs of research and exploration compared to others.

This is not the first agreement for the Indian company in Egypt. Last March, the Egyptian Petroleum Minister Eng. Sameh Fahmy signed two oil and gas exploration agreements with the GSPC.

The agreements were signed for blocks in the Western Desert and in the offshore East Mediterranean. Under the agreement, the GSPC will have to drill 20 wells and invest some 470 million dollars in oil and gas exploration.

GSPC is responsible for India’s largest gas find in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin and the construction of India’s first land-based drilling platform, Ratnakar, at Hazira. GSPC also is equipped with an enviable international portfolio with exploration acreage in Egypt, Yemen and Australia.