The Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El-Molla, has announced that due to the recent success with the offshore Zohr gas project in the Shorouk concession, the country is planning to offer 28 blocks for bidding by foreign oil and gas companies soon.

According to him, the blocks are situated in the Gulf of Suez, Red Sea, Western Desert, Eastern Desert and the Mediterranean.

In the past two and a half years, Egypt has entered into 66 agreements for new upstream oil and gas blocks, thereby acquiring a least commitment of $14 billion. El-Molla said the 20 wells will be spud on the Zohr project (6 during Phase 1), and they wells will be linked to three major pipelines connected to the shore about 200 kilometers away.

“Not less than 5,000 jobs will be created during the construction, (but these are) not permanent jobs. I am talking about construction jobs, after that I am not sure. We have already got a good number (hired by) the operating company,” he added.

Eni S.p.A. had signed a deal with the Egyptian government to develop the Zohr field in February this year, with first gas scheduled for late 2017. Gas production from the field is projected to gradually increase to about 2.65 Bscf/d or 75 Mmscm/d by 2019, Energy Egypt reports.

Anita Fatunji