Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi met on Thursday with Pascal Brean, Managing Director of France’s TotalEnergies in Egypt and Cyprus, to review progress in ongoing discussions on the company’s potential return to expand gas exploration activities in Egypt.
The talks, which began earlier this month, come amid TotalEnergies’ interest in operating in the Herodotus Deep Basin in the Mediterranean, as Egypt seeks to attract further investment in offshore exploration.
During the meeting, the minister welcomed TotalEnergies’ return to expand its activities and investments in natural gas exploration in the Mediterranean, and stressed that Egypt’s petroleum sector provides attractive investment opportunities for strategic partners to intensify gas exploration efforts.
Badawi noted that natural gas represents a cornerstone in achieving the ministry’s vision of gradually increasing domestic production.
The Mediterranean region is a top priority for the ministry over the coming period to expand exploration activities, offering new opportunities for co-operation with major international companies, including TotalEnergies, he explained.
He also highlighted the promising potential of Egypt’s oil and gas sector for discovering more resources, along with its solid infrastructure and accumulated expertise.
The minister stressed the state’s continued efforts to create a favourable investment climate and incentivise partners, to attract more capital and speed up pace of exploration.
For his part, TotalEnergies’ Brean highly appreciated the ministry’s commitment to supporting partnerships with major global companiesTotalEnergies considers Egypt a strategic market and intends to strengthen its presence and investments in natural gas exploration activities, particularly in the Mediterranean, given its abundant promising opportunities, he stressed.
The two sides emphasised the importance of accelerating the ongoing discussions and maintaining technical coordination in the coming period, in preparation for signing a memorandum of understanding at the earliest opportunity and initiating the implementation steps for joint exploration projects.
The meeting was attended by several officials from both sides.
