CAIRO: Egyptian Minister of Petroleum will launch an international tender in the Nimid area, northeast of the Mediterranean Sea. Royal Dutch Shell supposedly launched the tender and the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum will receive the tender responsibly from Shell to auction it off and divide the area into smaller areas to stimulate investments. The area is enriched with hydrocarbon. The area will be auctioned off because of the high cost of deploring and finding natural gas. Drilling could reach 2,400 meters in depth under sea level. This operation is unprecedented in Egypt. Shell left its concession area of Nimid because of the high cost of deploring natural gas. Shell officially notified the Ministry of Petroleum it will not invest in the Nimid area. Shell funded around U.S. $1.2 billion for over 12 years since 1998. The company aimed to provide around 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas for Liquid Natural Gas plant. However, it extracted only a trillion in only 500.41 square kilometers.