Egypt announced on Tuesday finding an oil reserve of around 100 million barrels in the Gulf of Suez, the biggest oil discovery in the area in over two decades.
The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said that the initial expected oil stock is about 100 million barrels found northeast of the Gulf of Suez. It predicted that the oil reserve might include more barrels that could be discovered and extracted after kickstarting a development plan.
In a statement reviewed by Asharq Al-Awsat, the ministry said that the oil reserve is one of the first discoveries made by Dubai-based Dragon Oil Ltd after it had completed the purchase of BP’s BP.L oil concessions in Egypt’s Gulf of Suez.
Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Tarek El Molla met on Tuesday with Dragon Oil president Ali Al Jarwan, on the sidelines of the EGYPS (Egypt Petroleum Show) 2022 conference, underway in Cairo.
Molla held bilateral meetings with the Secretary-General of OPEC Mohammad Barkindo and Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol.
During the meeting with Birol, Molla discussed ways to support joint cooperation between Egypt and IEA in the fields of clean energy in light of the global energy map shift and the impact of new supply and demand patterns, amid calls to rely on cleaner energy sources.
Molla stressed that the IEA has a long experience in the fields of research, development, and improvement of energy efficiency and its uses, and has valuable publications concerned with global energy issues.
For his part, Barkindo praised Egypt’s achievements in the energy field over the years.
During the meeting, Barkindo also highlighted Egypt’s strategic location among oil-producing and consuming countries.
Barkindo expressed pleasure at his participation in the activities of the fifth edition of EGYPS.
Molla said that the discussions reviewed the current situation of the global oil markets, the successive developments and significant challenges being witnessed.
His talks with Barkindo also tackled available opportunities to achieve a state of balance between supply and demand for oil, as well as the opportunities of the global energy sector to launch a new phase in the transition to clean energy and climate change.
