LNG

Feb 13 (LNGJ) - Egypt has awarded five natural gas exploration concessions to Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil Corp., Petronas of Malaysia, BP of the UK, and one other to Germany’s DEA and Italian company Eni in its latest round of tenders. The licence areas include the Western Desert, the Nile Valley and the Gulf of Suez. The gas awards mean that 20 wells will be drilled and Egypt expects investments of up to $800 million in the first stage of exploration. In addition to the gas licences there were seven oil exploration concessions in which 39 wells would be drilled. Eni’s discovery of the giant Zohr gas field in 2015 has raised interest in the East Mediterranean. The Zohr find and others have enabled Egypt to meet is rising domestic natural gas demand while arranging for the resumption of LNG exports.