Shell Aims to Operate Egypt Concessions in 2020
Royal Dutch Shell is aiming to start operating in its concession areas in Egypt in the second half of 2020, a senior executive said.Shell won three oil and two gas concessions in Egypt in February.Eni, BP and ExxonMobil also won some of a total of 12 tenders as Egypt looks to sustain an investment upswing spurred by major discoveries.Shell has also applied to take part in a bidding round in Egypt for oil and gas drilling in the Red Sea, Gerald Schotman, executive vice president upstream JVs at Shell…
Plans for Israeli Gas Exports to Egypt on Track
Plans to start exporting gas from Israel to Egypt are on track but further steps are still needed before exports can commence, Egyptian petroleum minister Tarek El Molla said on Monday."Everything is agreed on ... countries (involved) have already given their blessings. There is no issue in that," Molla told reporters during an energy conference in UAE's Abu Dhabi."It's a multilateral deal, a gas deal and a pipeline deal so it is a little bit a lengthy process.
Shell, Eni, Exxon Win Concessions in Egypt
Royal Dutch Shell, Eni, BP and Exxon Mobil were among winners of Egypt's international tender for oil and gas exploration on Tuesday, with 12 concessions awarded in total.It marks Exxon Mobil's entry into gas exploration in Egypt, while Shell was awarded the most concessions in the tender - three for oil and two for gas.Neptune Energy, Merlon, Shell, Eni and state-controlled Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) were awarded seven oil exploration concessions in total in which 39 wells will be drilled, Egypt's petroleum ministry said in a statement.Egypt has in recent years reached maritime
Egypt Okays BP, Mubadala Acquisition of Stake in Eni's Noor Concession
Egypt’s petroleum ministry has signed an agreement for UK Petroleum giant British Petroleum (BP) and UAE investment fund Mubadala to buy a 45 percent stake in the country's Noor offshore natural gas concesion in the Mediterannean from Italy’s Eni.In the concession, which is in participation with Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), Eni as operator through its subsidiary, IEOC, now holds a 40 percent interest. The other partners in the concession are BP with 25 percent interest…
Hoegh LNG Vessel to Leave Egypt Before Weekend
Egypt's petroleum minister said on Tuesday that a regasification vessel would leave Egypt by the end of the week, a day after Norway's Hoegh LNG said Egypt was to give up one of its two floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.The minister, Tarek El Molla, told Reuters the other vessel would stay behind as part of the petroleum ministry's strategy to maintain energy supplies for the country.Hoegh said Egypt Natural Gas Holding (EGAS), having decided to end its charter early…
Gas Production at Egypt's 9B Field to Begin in October - Minister
Production of natural gas from two deepwater wells at Shell's West Nile Delta field 9B in Egypt will begin in the first half of October, the country's petroleum minister said on Friday.Tarek El Molla said in a statement the whole project, which includes several other wells being dug and linked to production, was set for completion in the second half of 2019 and that its output aims to reach 400 million cubic feet per day.The statement did not say how much gas the first two wells would…
Egypt Approves Oil Exploration Deal with Eni, Tharwa
Egypt has approved an exploration agreement with Italy's Eni and the Egyptian Tharwa company to search for oil and gas in the Mediterranean off the coast of northern Sinai, the Egyptian oil minister said on Wednesday.Under the deal, Eni and Tharwa will spend $105 million in two stages over six years, which involve drilling one well in the first stage and another in the second, Tarek El Molla told journalists.Reporting by Momen Saeed Atallah, writing by Sami Aboudi
Cyprus-Egypt Gas Pipeline to Cost $800 mln-$1 bln
A pipeline connecting Cyprus' Aphrodite gas field to Egypt's liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities will cost between $800 million and $1 billion, Egyptian petroleum minister Tarek El Molla said on Monday. Egypt has rapidly increased its production of natural gas and is hoping to become a hub for exporting to Europe after making a series of big discoveries in recent years. Molla, speaking at a joint news conference with Cyprus energy minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis, said Cypriot gas would be used in part for domestic consumption and in part for export.
Egypt Inks Oil & Gas Exploration Deals
Egyptian Oil Minister Tarek El Molla has signed three oil and gas exploration deals for 16 new fields in the Western Desert worth at least $81.4 million in total with Royal Dutch Shell and the U.S.-based Apex International Energy. The Petroleum Ministry said in a statement that the first deal would see Shell invest $35.5 million, and the other two would see Apex, which is operating in Egypt for the first time, invest a combined $45.9 million on two projects. Egypt, which used to be a net energy exporter…
Turkmenistan Expected to Join OPEC-led Oil Supply Cut
Turkmenistan is likely to join an OPEC-led cut in oil supply aimed at supporting prices, sources in OPEC and the industry said, potentially enlarging the output reduction slightly. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers agreed last year to curb production by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) for six months from Jan. Oil prices have since gained support but global inventories remain high, pulling crude back towards $50 a barrel and putting pressure on OPEC to extend or possibly add to the cuts at least until the end of 2017.
BP to Lift Egypt's Gas Production
Production at BP's North Alexandria gas fields is expected to raise Egypt's natural gas output to 5.1 billion cubic feet per day from about 4.45 billion currently, Oil Minister Tarek El Molla said on Wednesday. Having recently started production at about 700 million cubic feet per day, BP expects it to reach 1.2 billion cubic feet per day in 2019. (Reporting by Abdel Rahman Adel; Writing by Eric Knecht)
Eni CEO says Mexico Oil Find Likely Bigger
Italy's Eni said on Wednesday it expected that its recent discovery off the coast of Mexico would hold more than the 800 million barrels of oil it originally estimated. "This is an important find and we've found new layers of good light oil that make us think there's more," Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi said at an oil and gas conference. Eni said earlier this month it had found "meaningful" reserves of oil off the coast of Mexico after becoming the first international oil company to drill a well in the country after a 2013 reform opening up the sector to investors.
Egypt Signs Oil & Gas Deals with BP, Total, and ENI
Egyptian Oil Minister Tarek El Molla has signed three oil and gas exploration and production deals worth at least $220 million in total with France's Total , Britain's BP, and Italian energy major ENI's Egyptian subsidiary IEOC, the ministry said on Wednesday. The deals include drilling for six wells, the ministry said in a statement. The first deal, signed with a consortium of BP and IEOC, is worth $75 million, the second, with a consortium of all three companies, is worth $80 million, and the third with BP alone worth $65 million. Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein
Egyptian Oil Company Takes $200 Mln Loan for Electricity Generation
Egypt's state oil company signed a $200 million loan agreement on Tuesday with the African Export-Import Bank to help expand electricity generation and distribution, an Afreximbank statement said. The government announced in August that it was raising household electricity prices by 40 percent as part of plans to eliminate power subsidies in the next few years. Consumption of cheaper electricity has exacerbated energy shortages and power cuts in summer months. Afreximbank president…
Saudis Halt Egypt Oil Shipments
Saudi Arabia has informed Egypt that shipments of oil products expected under a $23 billion aid deal would be halted indefinitely, suggesting a deepening rift between the Arab world's richest country and its most populous. Saudi Arabia agreed to provide Egypt with 700,000 tonnes of refined oil products per month for five years in April, during a visit by King Salman. The cargoes stopped arriving at the start of October, as festering political tensions burst into the open, but Egyptian…
Egypt Approves oil & gas deals
Egypt's government has approved five oil and gas drilling and exploration agreements with foreign companies ahead of parliament's final approval, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said on Wednesday. Four of the deals are gas exploration and drilling agreements between Egypt's state gas board EGAS and BP, Eni, Total, and Edison. The fifth deal, which is an oil and gas exploration and drilling deal, is between state petroleum board EGPC and a local company. Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein
Egypt Mulls IPO's for State-Owned Oil Firms
Egypt's Ministry of Investment will assess eight state-owned petroleum companies for their suitability for a possible listing on the Egyptian Stock Exchange or share issuances, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla told Reuters on Tuesday. The Egyptian presidency announced in January that Egypt would soon offer shares of "successful" state-owned companies and banks on the local bourse - its first public offering of government-owned firms since 2005, when it offered shares in Telecom Egypt, AMOC, and Sidi Kerir.
BP Fast-tracks Development of Atoll Discovery
BP announced today that together with the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), it has sanctioned development of the Atoll Phase One project which is an early production scheme that will bring up to 300 million cubic feet a day (mmscfd) gross of gas to the Egyptian domestic gas market starting in the first half of 2018. BP has a 100% interest in the concession. Hesham Mekawi, Regional President, BP North Africa commented: “BP is proud to progress the acceleration of the Atoll…
Zohr Gas Field to Begin Production by end-2017
Egypt has agreed with Italy's Eni to begin production of 1 billion cubic feet per day of gas at the Zohr gas field, the biggest in the Mediterranean, by the end of 2017, oil minister Tarek El Molla said on Tuesday. Zohr, discovered by Eni last year, has an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas. It is expected to plug Egypt's acute energy shortages and save it billions of dollars in precious hard currency that would otherwise be spent on imports. The company has so far completed three of the field's wells, El Molla said.
Egypt Arrears Owed to Oil Firms rises to $3 bln
Egypt's outstanding arrears to foreign oil companies rose to $3 billion at the end of December 2015 from $2.7 billion at the end of October, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla told Reuters on Sunday. "The arrears owed to foreign oil companies by Egypt reached around $3 billion at the end of December," El Molla said. The ministry had said in September that Egypt aimed to reduce the arrears owed to foreign oil companies to $2.5 billion by the end of 2015 and to pay them off completely by the end of 2016. (Reporting by Abdel Rahman Adel; Writing by Eric Knecht, editing by William Hardy)
