Egypt signs oil and gas deals worth $220m

CAIRO: Egyptian Oil Minister Tarek El Molla has signed three offshore oil and gas exploration and production deals worth a total of at least $220 million with France’s Total, Britain’s BP, and Italian oil major ENI’s Egyptian subsidiary IEOC, the ministry said on Wednesday. The deals include drilling for six wells and a signing bonus of $9 million, the ministry said in a statement, and are the result of a tender called by Egyptian state gas board EGAS. They are all in exploration blocks in the Egyptian Mediterranean Sea. The first deal, with a consortium of BP and IEOC, is worth $75 million for an exploration block in the North Ras El Esh block; the second, with a consortium of all three companies, is in the North El Hammad block and is worth $80 million, and the third, with BP alone, is in the North Tabia block and worth $65 million. Egypt has gone from exporting energy to being a net importer as domestic output has failed to keep pace with rising demand. Saudi Arabia informed Egypt last month that shipments of oil products expected under a $23 billion aid deal had been halted indefinitely. — Reuters