Oil Exploration in Egypt: "Billion-Dollar" Agreement with Eni

The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum announced in a statement on Friday that the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation signed an agreement with the Italian company Eni for oil exploration in the Gulf of Suez and the Nile Delta. According to the statement, the investment allocated for exploration operations in these areas will be no less than one billion dollars. The statement added that the agreement requires the Italian company Eni to spend at least an additional 20 million dollars to drill four wells. The statement noted, "The agreement comes as part of the new methodology of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources regarding increasing production rates and addressing the natural decline of wells," as reported by Reuters.