Egypt has reportedly green lighted a trio of binding oil and gas agreements in the country, aimed at the drilling of multiple exploration wells, the country’s cabinet said in a statement.

The multiple deals “include two projects to search for gas and crude oil in the Mediterranean Sea and one project to search for oil west of Gulf of Suez”, Reuters reported.

Egypt has lined up plans to drill for a total of 35 exploration wells in the next two years costing $1.8 billion, Upstream reported this month.

Speaking in Vienna earlier in July, Egypt’s Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said Eni, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and BP would drill a combined 35 exploration wells between now and July 2025.

Of these wells, 21 will be drilled in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, with 14 to come in the following 12 months, he said during an interview with Emirates news agency WAN ahead of a key Opec meeting.

El Molla did not go into the specifics of the probes, but consultancy Welligence Energy Analytics has highlighted some of the areas where key wells are lined up.

Multiple probes

These include three probes set to be drilled by BP in its North El Salem, North King Mariot and North West Abu Qir licences; and a further three by Shell in the North El Faner, North Sidi Garber and North East EL Amriya licences.

Eni is also planning a wildcat in the Nile Delta, according to Welligence.

Egypt currently imports gas from Israel and is set to receive gas from Chevron’s Aphrodite gas project in Cyprus in the coming years.