Shell plc subsidiary BG International Ltd. agreed to farm out a 40% interest in the North East El-Amriya offshore area (Block 3) in the Egyptian Mediterranean Sea to Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. (KUFPEC) subsidiary KUFPEC (Egypt) Ltd. (KEL).
Shell will remain as block operator, a position gained through its 100% acquisition of the asset from ExxonMobil in 2022 (OGJ Online, May 19, 2022).
The agreement is subject to government and regulatory approvals, without prejudice to pre-emption rights, KEL said in a release Sept. 20.
Khaled Kacem, Shell’s vice-president and country chair for Egypt, said the new partnership in the Nile Delta Block 3 will enable the companies to leverage their joint expertise to progress the opportunity.
In August, Shell Egypt and partners began drilling activities in the Nile Delta Blocks 3 and 4. The exploration project envisages three wells to be drilled consecutively.
Alex Procyk is Upstream Editor at Oil & Gas Journal. He has also served as a principal technical professional at Halliburton and as a completion engineer at ConocoPhillips. He holds a BS in chemistry (1987) from Kent State University and a PhD in chemistry (1992) from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
