Egypt this week launched three separate bid rounds via the oil ministry’s new online Egypt Upstream Gateway (EUG), which was officially inaugurated in cooperation with Schlumberger on 18 February. State gas firm Egas launched a bid round for nine gas-prone blocks in the country’s offshore Mediterranean region while state oil firm EGPC launched two bid rounds for 12 blocks in the oil prone Western Desert and three blocks in the Gulf of Suez.
While the offshore Med and Western Desert blocks appear to be a mix of new and old acreage, the three blocks in the Gulf of Suez were offered in a 2018 bid round, with no takers (MEES, 25 May 2018). Will Cairo be able to attract investment with IOCs still in no mood to relax the purse-strings? (CONTINUED - 1324 WORDS)
