Ahram Online: Egypt to finalise 20 more oil and gas concessions by year end: Minister

Egypt plans to finalise 20 new oil and gas exploration concession and modification agreements by the end of the year, Minister of Petroleum Sherif Ismail announced on Tuesday.

"We have already signed 36 new concession agreements and modifications. We have 20 more in the pipeline...which we will be presenting to the cabinet to sign before the end of this year," said Ismail in a panel attended by a US business mission in Cairo.

Following the 2011 uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak, Egypt was unable to pay its mounting debts to foreign oil and gas companies.

As a result, "there have been no new concessions in the period from 2010 to 2013, which resulted in decreasing exploration areas to only 27 blocks during 2013, down from 53 in 2010," he said.
MORE