Egypt has signed today two crude oil and natural-gas exploration agreements with UK-based Dana Petroleum PLC with at least US $ 24 million in investments. Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Sherif Ismail and Dana Petroleum Managing Director Paul Barnett on Monday signed 2 agreements in the natural gas and oil exploration field with US $ 24 million in investments. The two agreements authorise exploration for petroleum products in West Dakhla (1) and (2) areas in Egypt's Western Desert. The agreements also include a US $ one million contract to drill 4 new wells. The signing ceremony was in the presence of Dr. Sherif Sousa - first under-secretary at the Egyptian Petroleum Ministry; along with Eng. Moustafa Safwat, Chairman of Ganoub El-Wadi Petroleum Holding Company (Ganope). The Egyptian minister Ismail asserted that a future vision for research and exploration is currently being created in the regions of South Valley and Red Sea through implementing an integrated project for geological survey aiming at securing data and information required for offering new regions in the South Valley in international bidding.
