Egypt signs $42 million gas exploration agreement

The deal commits Cheiron to a minimum investment of more than $42 million to drill three exploration wells and reprocess seismic data, as part of efforts to assess the area’s potential and find additional gas resources.

Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi said the new agreements were an important step towards speeding up exploration and allowing partners to start work programmes in new areas, which could lead to new discoveries and add to oil and gas reserves.

He said stepping up exploration, while accelerating the development of discovered fields and getting the most from their production, was central to the ministry’s plan to increase domestic output, meet a larger share of local demand and strengthen energy security in the coming years.

Earlier, it was reported that Egypt had signed a $1 billion financing agreement with the World Bank to implement the second phase of its Development Policy Financing (DPF) program, aimed at supporting structural reforms, strengthening economic resilience and improving the country's business environment.