Foreign companies are targeting investments of approximately $6bn during the fiscal year (FY) 2015/2016, according to Tarek El Molla, CEO of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC). El Molla said these would occur in operations of research and exploration for oil and gas in the companies' respective areas of privileges in Egypt. Total foreign investment, which is being pumped this year, is estimated at $7.5bn. A petroleum ministry official said actual investments of foreign companies in the next fiscal year shrunk as a result of declined cost of drilling and developing wells. This was due to the decline of the crude oil Brent price in global markets at an average of $60/barrel. El Molla added that the EGPC's programme began in earnest steps to encourage search activity and exploration for oil and gas. The steps include offering global bids and signing petroleum agreements, to support reserves and increase production rates of oil wealth. He mentioned that the last international bid of the authority resulted in awarding seven areas for exploration of petroleum and gas. Two sectors in the Suez Gulf were awarded to German RWI. Five sectors in the Western Desert were awarded to Tunisian HBSI, Canadian TransGlobe, and the Italians Edison and IOC, with investments of at least $187.4m to drill 29 wells and signature grants of $48.6m. The EGPC report said Egypt's daily average petroleum production amounted to 676,600 barrels/day, of which 590,000 are oil barrels and 86,000 are condensate barrels. The average natural gas production amounted to 4.6bn cubic feet daily and an average of 74,000 barrels daily for butane gas.
