The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) has granted US$20 million credit facilities for Sino Tharwa Drilling Company in order to finance its investment plan. An official source in NBE who is the main financier of the company in the Egyptian market said the bank has financed around 90% of the company's vessels. Sino Tharwa is the Second largest land-drilling contractor in Egypt. Recently the company initiated efforts to expand into the offshore industry as well. With extensive financial and logistical support from China and Egypt, SinoTharwa provides drilling and work-over rigs to the oil and gas industry in Egypt. SinoTharwa has maintained a strong presence in Egypt since its inception eight years ago. The company benefited greatly from solid support of both Chinese and Egyptian backers as well as a motivated and well-experienced management team. Sino-Tharwa Drilling Company was established in 2005 as a joint venture between Sinopec Star Petroleum Co. and Tharwa Petroleum Company – a subsidiary of the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum & Mineral Resources. Each entity holds a 50% percent share of the company. The company started with US$18 million in capital investment. In 2007 capital investment reached US$40 million. In 2008 the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) entered into the joint venture and by the end of 2008, capital investment reached US$80 million. Currently capital investment stands at US$586 million. According to SinoTharwa's annual report for 2012, the company successfully occupies a substantial market share with 22% of drilling rigs, making it one of the most competitive petroleum engineering companies in Egypt. During the last period, NBE captured EGP170 million financing in favor of Misr Petroleum Company. NBE is the largest financier for the petroleum sector with total financing reached EGP41 billion in the last fiscal year, and it seizes around 30% of the total financing which exceeded (EGP65 billion). The total letters of credit which the bank has been issued in favor of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) reached US$7.7 billion (EGP54 billion) at the ended fiscal year of 2012/2013.
