EGYPT'S aims to attract $2.5 billion worth of new investments in its oil sector with a plan of issuing as much as 18 oil concessions to be offered on bidding, Minister of Oil Sameh Fahmi was quoted as saying on Friday. The country's proven reserves of oil and gas rose to 18.3 billion barrels equivalent in the year to end-June 2010 and Egypt expects to boost them to 20 billion over the next two years, the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported in August. The ministry is eyeing boosting crude oil and condensates production to 720,000 barrels per day and will seek to dig about 350 new oil exploration wells, Fahmi said, Reuters reported, citing semi-official Al-Ahram newspaper. The oil ministry which had said Egypt's proven reserves of oil and oil condensates were about 4.4 billion barrels, expected domestic consumption of natural gas and petroleum based products to reach 75 million tonnes in 2011-2012, the newspaper added. The ministry planned to issue new concessions in as much as 18 locations in the Gulf of Suez, Sinai, and Egypt's Western and Eastern deserts, Fahmi said. On Wednesday, the country's Stateowned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) said it would offer up to 19 areas for exploration this year in international tenders. “It is planned to offer 17 areas to search for gas in the Mediterranean Sea and two land areas in the Nile Delta,” Al-Masry Al-Youm daily newspaper cited the head of the company, Mahmoud Latif. The company expects a seven per cent increase in domestic consumption of gas to 35.5 million tonnes in the 2010/2011 fiscal year, the paper cited an EGAS report as saying. Egypt emerged as a significant natural gas producer in the past decade, swiftly developing mainly offshore Mediterranean gas reserves. It exported its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo early in 2005 and boosted foreign sales by pipeline. Last July, the North African country signed a $9 billion agreement with BP and Germany's RWE Dea to develop five offshore fields that will supply up to 1 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day of natural gas in 2014. The two companies have already spent about $1 billion to develop the fields, an Egyptian Oil Ministry statement said. Under the amended agreement, they will spend another $8 billion, of which RWE says it will contribute $3.6 billion. BP sold Apache Corp four onshore development leases in Egypt but retained its offshore interests. Egypt has a total 77.3 tcf of proven gas reserves, according to BP, with much of it deepwater off the northern Mediterranean coast, making it the 15th biggest holder of gas in the world. eady spent about $1 billion to develop the fields, an Egyptian Oil Ministry statement said. Under the amended agreement, they will spend another $8 billion, of which RWE says it will contribute $3.6 billion. BP sold Apache Corp four onshore development leases in Egypt but retained its offshore interests. Egypt has a total 77.3 tcf of proven gas reserves, according to BP, with much of it deepwater.
