On the sidelines of the Mediterranean Conference and Exhibition “MOC 2018” Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tariq Al-Mulla and Dr. Mohamed Sultan, Governor of Alexandria signed three agreements, the first agreement between Egypt Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), South Valley Egyptian Holding Company and Toyota Tsusho of Japan, and the Second and Third Agreements between the Ministry of Petroleum, Halliburton International and CGG of France.
The first agreement was signed by Eng. Osama Al-Baqli, President of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company, and Mohamed Shimi, President of South Valley Holding Company for Petroleum, on the Japanese side Yasufi Soudo, general manager of oil and gas at Toyota Japan, which aims to buy and own a new offshore drilling rig with high potential and works at deep-water technologies with investments of about $ 600 million.
The minister pointed out that the agreement comes within the framework of the implementation of current and future exploratory and production drilling plans and programs in the deep waters of the Mediterranean and Gulf of Suez regions, along with the Red Sea area, which requires the need for marine excavators equipped with modern technology to work in deep water to reduce development costs and maximize economic returns, in addition to the implementation of drilling programs exploratory wells and development at the specified time, contributing to the rapid development of new discoveries on the production map, this is part of the petroleum sector strategy to maximize reserves and increase production to meet local market needs.
He added that this project will enable the petroleum sector to own its production tools, consisting of the full possession of a deep sea or floating semi-floating offshore drilling equipment, is a strong addition to the petroleum sector in light of the growing research and exploration and development of existing fields that are expected to increase during the coming period.
The agreement stipulates that the project will be implemented in three phases, starting with the initial study stage, followed by the stage of development of the project and the preparation of preliminary and detailed studies of the economic feasibility of the project, the implementation will then begin as a third stage, the agreement comes within the framework of continued cooperation between the Egyptian and Japanese sides, especially in the field of oil and natural gas, where the two sides are involved in the management and operation of the diggers Al-Qahir 1 and Al-Qahr 2, which provide excellent results since they entered the petroleum sector in 2011.
The second and third agreements were signed by geologist Ashraf Faraj, the undersecretary of the ministry for agreements and exploration, Eng. Osama Abdel Halim, Halliburton President Egypt and geologist Rami Qazman, CGG Egypt, aims to complete the project of Egypt Gate for the marketing of petroleum areas and exploration, in order to complement the agreement of understanding, which was signed with Schlumberger International in February, to increase competition and benefit from the global expertise of these specialized companies.
