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2008 International Bid Round Egypt

On 7 September 2008, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) launched the 2008 International Bid Round. The Bid Round includes seven exploration blocks which are all located in the Mediterranean Sea Basin in Egypt.

It has been announced that interested companies should contact EGAS to review and/or purchase data. This data may consist of 2D Seismic, 3D Seismic or E-logs across the blocks on offer.

The bid round closing date is Monday, 9 February 2009 at 12 noon (Cairo local time) and offers should be based on the procedures, main terms, conditions and the Production Sharing Model Agreement of which further details can be obtained from: www.egas.com.eg

2008 EGAS Bid Round Acreage 

Block No.

Block Name

Surface (sqkm)

Water Depth (m)

1 (a,b)

N. Gamasa Offshore

281

20 – 75

2

N. Tineh Offshore

2400

80 – 1000

3 (a,b)

N. Damietta Offshore

1604

100 – 1200

4 (a,b,c,d)

E. El Burullus Offshore

2516

100 – 1500

5

N. El Mamura Offshore

2541

750 – 1800

6

N. El Dabaa Offshore

6670

Up to 3000

7

Sidi Barrani Offshore

5388

50 – 3000


Map: Showing blocks on offer in the EGAS 2008 bid round (turquoise shading)
Source: PetroView®

This bid round, covering areas of the Mediterranean and Nile Delta basin, has been highly anticipated after the last EGAS licensing round, which took place in 2006. It follows the announcement of the Ganope licensing round earlier this year, which covered acreage in Southern Egypt. The 2006 round had 12 blocks on offer across both onshore and offshore areas and a total acreage size of over 60,000 square kilometres. This was fairly successful and resulted in eight blocks and a total of 33,357 square kilometres were awarded. Operators included RWE, ENAP, Tharwa Petroleum, Gujarat State Petroleum Co, Edison and StatoilHydro.  In contrast, the seven blocks on offer in the latest round have a total acreage size of 21,463 square kilometres. These areas are, however, all located offshore and many areas are located adjacent to acreage, which has proven to be gas prone. Some of Egypt’s largest, recent discoveries have been made in this Mediterranean Sea area.

EGAS was established in August 2001 to organise and handle the activities of natural gas resources in Egypt. Egypt is looking to increase oil and gas exploration activity to increase its reserves and raise production and it is hoped that the acreage on offer as part of this round can contribute to this. It is hoped that the recent discoveries in the Mediterranean deep water (> 500 metres) will encourage International Oil Companies to continue to compete for deep water areas. A third Egyptian round, to be held by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), is also due to be held later this year but no information has been released on this so far.

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