The French company ENGIE has sold the West El Burullus (WEB) offshore gas concession in Egypt to Cheiron—a subsidiary of the Egyptian conglomerate PICO Group. The deal, which involved transferring 100% of the concession rights and operatorship of WEB to Cheiron and included BNP Paribas as a financial advisor of ENGIE, remained rather confidential, where the terms of the agreement were not disclosed. According to a report issued by BNP Paribas, its financial advisory services enabled ENGIE to overcome the challenges of the low oil price environment, in addition to the existing challenges in the Egyptian environment in general, such as the shortage of the foreign currency. The West El Burullus concession is located in the shallow waters of the Mediterranean Sea. It contains two gas and condensate discoveries, in addition to gas reserves of 200 billion cubic feet (bcf) and 3 million barrels (MMbbls) of condensates. It is worth mentioning that PICO Group is one of the largest Egyptian family conglomerates, and is owned by the Diab family. The company is interested in the fields of energy, agriculture, retail, real estate, and private equity, with assets in Egypt, Romania, and Mexico.
