Foreign partners’ investments in 2017/18 at $10bn: Minister of Petroleum
Commitment to pay the dues of partners led to increase their investments in the oil sector, according to El Molla
The investments of foreign partners were estimated at $10bn during the current fiscal year 2017/2018, in the activities of oil and gas exploration and field development and operation.
Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla told Daily News Egypt that foreign partners in the oil sector have raised the planned investments in the oil sector, after Egypt’s commitment to pay their dues regularly.
He said that the oil sector paid foreign partners of the international oil companies operating in Egypt new payments of $2.2bn recently, from their accumulated arrears from previous periods, thus reducing the debt to about $2.3bn, the lowest level since 2013.
El Molla explained that the foreign partners’ entitlements amounted to about $6.3bn. The commitment to pay the current receivables bill regularly did not result in the accumulation of any new receivables.
He pointed out that the initiatives of payment and reduction of receivables had a positive reflection on the increasing investments in Egypt in oil and gas exploration and the development of discovered fields to increase Egypt’s crude oil and gas production.
The minister stressed that there are intensive efforts exerted by the ministry to increase production using advanced methods and technologies to reduce the natural decline in the wells and increase the productivity of the current wells, and the petroleum sector is implementing plans to increase the production of petroleum wealth.
He added that the oil sector is continuing its policies to launch international bids for research and exploration and signing new oil agreements with international companies, which served as the real catalyst that enriched the oil activity and gave strong pushes to increase production.
Moreover, El Molla said that the oil sector signed 82 exploration agreements with a minimum investment of about $15.4bn, which are expected to fruit some new discoveries, supporting the goal of increasing production and reserves of petroleum wealth.
He pointed out that efforts are also being intensified in cooperation with foreign partners to carry out projects to develop large gas discoveries in the deep waters of the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile Delta to contribute to the planned increase in gas production.
He noted that Egypt has investment opportunities in the oil sector, adding that the ministry is working on preparing and offering them in the best way to investors.