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Petroleum Ministry to announce winning companies of exploration tender in 11 areas Shell and Apache applied to acquire sectors in the western desert, says source
The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) will announce this week the foreign companies that won after bidding in tender for the research and exploration of oil and natural gas in 11 regions. The EGPC has completed the technical and financial evaluation of the offers from foreign companies; the results will be presented to the board of directors for approval and then submitted to the minister of petroleum, head of the EGPC Tarek El-Hadidi told Daily News Egypt. A source in the petroleum sector said Dutch company Shell and US company Apache applied to obtain new concession areas in the western desert in the bid offered by the EGPC in May. The source said the foreign partner has a good vision for the petroleum sector in Egypt and looks forward to increasing investments on a regular basis, despite the low price per barrel of oil in the international markets. Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla said in previous statements that the bid offering comes as part of the state's strategy to secure energy supplies, and the executive vision of the petroleum sector to achieve this through intensifying the oil and gas research activity. This encourages international companies to inject more investments in this field. Egypt has rich petroleum opportunities for investment, which El-Molla said were developed through the state's efforts to improve the investment climate, develop infrastructure, and establish meaningful development projects that improve standards of living and boost growth rates. The minister said the goal of this plan is to make new discoveries and connect companies operating in research and exploration areas to obtain petroleum discoveries with good prospects—one of the factors which encouraged global companies to compete in this bid. Other bids are being prepared to be offered this year, including new areas that belong to the Egyptian Holding Company for Natural Gas (EGAS) and Ganoub El Wadi Petroleum Holding Company. Foreign companies operating the Egyptian petroleum sector applied for the bid which included five areas in the Suez Gulf, northeast of 6th of October City, northeast of Al-Hamd, northeast of 10th of Ramadan City, east Badry, and north Asran. There are six areas in the western desert, northwest of Razak, southeast of Malih, north of Om Barakah, south of Alam El-Shawish, west Badr Eldeen, and southeast Siwa.
