Egyptian Petroleum Ministry signed three new agreements for exploring gas and oil in the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday whose total investments are estimated at US$220 million. The agreements were signed between the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company – EGAS and British Petroleum, France's Total and Italy's IEOC -a unit of Eni- to explore gas and oil in North El-Hammad, North Ras El-Esh and North El Tabya fields. The agreements were inked by EGAS' Chairman Mohamed El Masry, BP Regional President of North Africa, Hisham Mekkawy, and Managing Director at Total E&P Egypt, Jean-pascal Clemencon. The first agreement was signed between Egypt's EGAS and a consortium of BP and IEOC to explore North Ras El-Esh concession area with investments of US$75 million. The second agreement was signed between Egypt and a consortium including the three international firms on exploring North El-Hammad concession area with investments worth US$80 million. Meanwhile, UK's BP and Egypt's EGAS signed the third agreement that aims at exploring gas and oil in North El Tabya area with investments estimated at US$65 million. Egyptian Oil Minister Tarek El-Molla stated that these agreements came as a result of the global bids issued recently by Egypt's EGAS and represent a success for the strategy of the Egyptian oil ministry to carry out more oil and gas explorations so as to raise state's reserves and local production. Within the last three years, Egyptian petroleum sector signed 73 deals on oil and gas exploration with international firms whose total investments worth more than US$15 billion, the minister added.
