Egypt to Finalise 20 More Oil, Gas Concessions by Year End

Egypt has plans to finalise 20 new oil and gas exploration concession and modification agreements by year end, 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, reported ahramonline website.

The North African nation has been facing energy crisis due to declining gas production amid rising domestic consumption.

Earlier this month, Norway’s Hoegh LNG on finalised a five year deal with Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) to supply FSRU by the end of first quarter of 2015.

According to Ismail, energy sector's reform will involve working on the demand side in addition to the supply side, ahramonline reported. He said that the country's growing fuel subsidy bill had diverted resources from expansion projects.