Foreign partners working in the oil sector are targeting investing an amount of $10bn in the coming fiscal year (FY) in oil and gas exploration, fields development, as well as operation. The Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El-Molla, informed Daily News Egypt that the next FY will witness the implementation of a number of major projects in the fields of oil and gas exploration, in addition to the development of fields in different concession areas. He explained that the ministry of petroleum cooperates with foreign partners in order to implement oil projects, and to continue to increase production rates, as well as to compensate for the natural decline of wells. The minister also stated that the foreign partners' arrears were reduced to about $1.2bn, after completing the payment of $5.1bn by the end of the last FY of the total indebtedness estimated at $6.3bn in 2012. He added that the lowest level of these receivables was $1.35bn in June 2010, and will be fully paid by the end of this year. El Molla explained that the ministry is working on reducing the foreign partner's indebtedness accumulated over the past years, in parallel with paying the value of the partners' purchase share of oil and gas, which is produced locally on a monthly basis. He also stated that the initiatives of payment and the reduction of receivables had a positive reflection on the increased pumping of foreign oil investments in Egypt, in order to search for oil and gas, and the development of the discovered fields to increase domestic production of crude oil and gas. Moreover, the minister pointed out that Egypt has attractive investment opportunities in the oil sector, which are being prepared to be utilised in the best way. El Molla elaborated that there are intensive efforts which are being exerted by the ministry to increase production through following advanced methods and technologies to reduce the natural decline in wells, and in order to increase the productivity of the current wells, adding that the oil sector is actually implementing plans to increase the production of petroleum wealth. The ministry of petroleum is stepping up its efforts, in cooperation with foreign partners, in order to carry out projects to develop large gas discoveries deep in the Mediterranean Sea, and the Nile Delta to contribute toward increasing gas production to 8bn cubic feet per day by 2021.
