The agreements, with a minimum investment of more than $340 million and the drilling of 10 wells, are part of the ministry's first strategic pillar to intensify exploration and production activities.
Mahmoud Abdel Hamid, EGAS's CEO and Managing Director,
signed the agreements on behalf of the company.
The first agreement, for the Mediterranean offshore Merneith
area, was signed with Shell, with an investment of $120 million to drill three
wells. It was signed by Dalia Al-Jabri, Shell Egypt's country chair.
The second agreement, for the offshore East Port Said area,
was with Italy's Eni, with an investment of $100 million to drill three wells.
The agreement was signed by Francesco Gaspari, Eni's general manager in Egypt,
and witnessed by Wael Shaheen, vice president of BP Egypt, and Ali Abdullah Al
Mana, production and exploration director at QatarEnergy, representing BP and
QatarEnergy as Eni's partners in the investment.
The third agreement, for the onshore North Khatatba area in
the Nile Delta, was with Russia's Zarubezhneft, with an investment of up to $14
million to drill four wells. It was signed by Yassin Rahleeb, the company's
vice president in Egypt, in the presence of its general manager, Rustem
Bakirov, and chief geologist, Mikhail Kobrak.
The fourth agreement, for the offshore North Damietta area,
was with the international company Archeus Energy, with an investment of about
$109 million. It was signed by Nasser Al Yafai, the company's president,
representing a partnership between BP and XRG, a subsidiary of the UAE's ADNOC.
The ministry said the agreements reflect its continued efforts to drive investment in the gas sector and accelerate exploration activities to boost gas resources and increase production.