15.11.2019

Royal Dutch Shell has appointed Citibank to manage the $1 billion sale of oil and gas in Egypt’s Western Desert. Sources told Reuters the sale would officially begin at the end of November. The company announced plans to sell in October, which includes 19 oil and gas leases with 100,000 barrels of oil per day.

The company confirmed that it is disposing of onshore assets, so that it can focus on the development of its offshore business in Egypt, said Khaled Kassem, President of the company in Egypt: “This includes the exploration and development of eight new wells, and another group of offshore activities have been discovered and will be followed up by exploration in Rosetta”.

“Shell is proud to be working in Egypt for over 100 years, and we continue to support the government’s vision of energy by increasing the number of offshore sites and working on LNG,” said Wael Sawan, Shell’s initial production manager. He added: “This is where we can make the most of our expertise, delivering the strongest added value to Egypt”.

Egypt’s offshore exploration sector exploded last month because of the discovery of two huge reserves in Zohr and Nour fields, where Italian corporation Eni discovered a large field in Sedri, which is expected to save up to 200 million barrels of oil. The United Arab Emirates oil company Dragon said it had replaced BP (British Petroleum) as a partner of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, saying it would invest $1 billion over the next five years, according to Oil price website.