HELLENIC PETROLEUM S.A. announces that in Egypt today a contract was signed granting hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation rights in West Obayed.
The contract was signed for Egypt by the country's petroleum minister, Eng. Sameh Fahmy, and the chairman of the Egyptian state petroleum organization, EGPC, Eng. Abdel Aleem Taha. For Greece, it was signed by HELLENIC PETROLEUM managing director Panos Cavoulakos.
The contract was signed at the Egyptian petroleum ministry. Those attending included Dimitrios Matthaiou and Ioannis Kostopoulos (executive members of the HELLENIC PETROLEUM Board of Directors) and executives from the company's hydrocarbon exploration and production department.
The West Obayed region of the Western Desert awarded to HELLENIC PETROLEUM as operator covers 1841 square kilometres and borders the Obayed region, where a gas field operated by Shell is in production.
Our company has committed itself to a total of seven years of exploration, with five drillings costing 26 million dollars. The first three years of the exploratory period in West Obayed includes the carrying out of seismic surveys and three exploratory drillings.
The signing ceremony was followed by the opening of the Hellenic Petroleum Group's office in Cairo in the presence of the Patriarchal Vicar of Cairo, His Grace Nikodimos, Bishop of Nitrias, and a reception attended by representatives of the business world, the Greek embassy and consulate, and international companies which are active in Egypt.
HELLENIC PETROLEUM managing director Panos Cavoulakos then gave a speech in which he conveyed the greetings of the chairman of the board, Efthimios Christodoulou, and noted that now the Group's entrance into Egypt was official, stressing that this was the first time in HELLENIC PETROLEUM's history that it had undertaken the exclusive operation of a concession.
Mr Cavoulakos also referred to the Group's broader plans, which aim at the development of a portfolio of deposits and exploratory regions.
This includes a concession -through a joint venture- in the Mesaha region of Upper Egypt, which is expected to be signed soon.
Concluding, Mr Cavoulakos pointed out that Egypt is a country with a stable business environment that supports investment by foreign companies, and has a number of opportunities in the field of hydrocarbon exploration and production.