The General Petroleum Corporation will launch a new international bid for the Nimid area in the northeast of the Mediterranean Sea after the Shell Corporation abandoned it, Egyptian petroleum ministry sources reported. The General Authority for Petroleum will accept the area from Royal Dutch Shell by the end of the month and put it up for auction to international companies, sources said, adding that the Authority will auction off smaller parts of the area to ensure the success of promoting and attracting international companies to the region. The area contains large reserves of hydrocarbons, which are very expensive to extract. The area is being put up for auction due to the high costs associated with exploration in deep water areas, sources said. The depths are estimated to be up to 2,400 meters from the surface of the sea, an exploration that is unprecedented for Egypt. Shell notified the Ministry of Petroleum through a formal memo in March that they no longer wish to continue exploration operations in the region. The note was copied to Petronas Karigaly and the Egyptian Holding Company for Natural Gas. Shell has spent over 12 years and U.S. $1.2 billion in the process of prospecting the region since the Petroleum Authority gave them the region in 1998.
