Ukraine’s Naftogaz Commercial Director, Yuriy Vitrenko, stated that the company considers contracting an investment and banking adviser who will assess how much the company can receive from sale of its assets in Egypt, reported Interfax Ukraine News Agency.

Vitrenko further told reporters that the adviser “will assess real offers and how much [buyers] are ready to give for this project. We will compare it with our expectations.”

This came as Naftogaz’ CEO, Andrey Kobolev, announced last December that the Egyptian assets make no profit for the company and that there is no need to invest in them, reported InVenture Investment Portal.

Vitrenko explained that if the adviser’s assessment exceeded the company’s expectations Naftogaz would raise the issue of selling its Egyptian assets at the meetings of the supervisory board and government.

Naftogaz through its subsidiary Zakordonnaftogaz explores and operates two oil and gas blocks in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, South Wadi El Mahareeth and Wadi El Mahareeth. The work on the two blocks, the projected resources of which exceed 360m tons of oil, is carried out on the basis of concession agreements signed on February 7, 2012 between Zakordonnaftogaz on behalf of Naftogaz and Egypt’s Gnoub El Wadi Petroleum Company (Ganope).