Egypt Strikes Offshore Deals with IOCs

Egypt has reached preliminary deals with five international oil companies (IOCs) on oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean, its petroleum minister Tarek El Molla said on Sky News Arabia TV on February 15.

The agreements with Anglo-Dutch Shell, US Chevron, UK BP, French Total and ExxonMobil cover seven concessions, where exploration drilling should begin in early 2021, the minister said.

Egypt is hoping to find offshore fields similar size to the Zohr gas discovery, made by Italy's Eni in 2015 and brought on stream in December 2017. However the market for gas globally is depressed, which has led to Egypt's LNG plants being shut in periodically.