Egyptian Petroleum Minister, Sherif Ismail, said Thursday nine new petroleum agreements will be signed within the coming days, Al Bawaba News reported. Ismail added that the nine agreements with total investments of $ 2,2 billion were approved in addition to news grants of oil and gas search in the Mediterranean Sea, Suez, Delta and western desert areas with total investments of $ 593 million. In a statement issued on Thursday, Ismail pointed out to the importance of such agreements as it will pump up new investments to intensify research and exploration to discover new reserves and increase production rates and complete the implementation of exploratory and developmental programs regions agreements. Ismail signaled to the agreements with the Italian ENI which will contribute to pump investments up to $ 2.1 billion through four agreements in North Port Said, Balteem, the Gulf of Suez and the Nile Delta which comes in order to effectuate the agreement of principles signed during the Sharm el-Sheikh Economic Forum. The two agreements with the US Apache Corporation in the western desert with investments of $ 70 million will contribute to the complete implementation of exploration programs and the development of pipeline facilities in the region which have a major impact to save time and speed up production of the western desert area, he said.
