Egypt strives to attract investments to its energy sector

Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy asserted the importance of attracting more investments to oil, gas and minerals prospecting and extracting operations in south Egypt.
The Egyptian oil sector signed 12 contracts and set aside $ 282 mm for prospecting operations in 220,000 sq km, accounting for 50 % of the total area of Upper Egypt, Fahmy told.

The contracts involve digging 46 oil wells, he said, pointing out that the oil sector made one of its top priorities the development in Upper Egypt.
Work is underway for building a 738 km-long gas network that will cover Upper Egypt, the minister added.

The first phase of building a 145 km-long gas pipeline in the area extending south to Aswan started with a view to supply consumers with natural gas through 2011.
The total foreign investments in the oil and gas sector in the last five years reached $ 9.5 bn, $ 7.6 mm of which were injected to the prospecting and development operations, with the oil and gas reserves increasing, Fahmyadded.