Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has announced a new agreement with Cheiron to explore for natural gas in the East Alexandria Offshore area of the Mediterranean Sea.

Signed between state-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) and Cheiron, the agreement commits the company to a minimum investment of more than $42 million to drill three exploration wells and reprocess seismic data.

The programme aims to assess the area’s natural gas potential and identify additional resources.

Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi said the agreement marks an important step towards accelerating exploration activities and enabling international partners to launch work programmes in new areas, potentially leading to further discoveries and an increase in Egypt’s oil and gas reserves.

He added that intensifying exploration, accelerating the development of discovered fields and maximising production from existing assets remain central to the ministry’s strategy to boost domestic output, meet a greater share of local energy demand and strengthen the country’s energy security in the coming years. -OGN/TradeArabia News Service