Egypt plans to attract investments worth $10 billion in petroleum sector within 2019, Oil Minister Tarek el-Molla told news-channel. The first international tender for natural gas exploration in Red Sea will be floated very soon, el-Molla said, pointing out that Egypt's gas production amounts to around 6,400 million cubic feet per day. He stated that Egypt is studying previous gas export contracts that would not affect the local market including a Lebanese one. On Jan. 31, el-Molla discussed with his Lebanese counterpart Cesar Abi Khalil ways of boosting bilateral cooperation in the petroleum and gas domains. The Lebanese minister expressed his country's desire that Egypt would resume pumping natural gas to Lebanon as part of the 2009 contract signed between the two sides. El-Molla said earlier that in the period from 2014 to 2018, Egypt signed 63 petroleum agreements with investments of $14 billion. The minister reviewed achievements in the sector, saying that the ministry implemented the biggest two projects for collecting geophysical data in areas of the Red Sea and Upper Egypt. He added that debts to foreign oil partners slumped to less than one third, recording $1.2 billion by the end of June 2018, which is the lowest amount since 2010. El-Molla clarified that 24 projects were implemented to develop gas fields, most importantly projects of Zohr, Atoll, Noras and North Alexandria, adding that these projects contributed to the hike of natural gas production by 60 percent, compared to the average production in 2015/2016. Egypt achieved self-sufficiency of gas at the end of September 2018. The minister also referred to the rise of the refinery laboratories' efficiency and the expansion of infrastructure projects, maximizing the added value of petrol and gas through petrochemical industries, as three projects with investments of $4 billion were executed to increase petrochemical industries. Source: Egypt Today
