QatarEnergy recently announced that it is expanding its exploration footprint in Egypt after agreeing with Chevron to acquire a 23 percent working interest in the concession agreement for the North El-Dabaa (H4) block in the Mediterranean Sea offshore Egypt.
“This agreement demonstrates our commitment to the oil and gas sector in the Arab Republic of Egypt, and further strengthens our partnership with our valued partner Chevron,” stated Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, president and CEO of QatarEnergy.
Under the agreement, QatarEnergy will acquire a 23 percent interest, while Chevron, the operator, will retain a 40 percent interest. The other partners on the block are Woodside with a 27 percent interest and Tharwa Petroleum Company, an Egyptian state company, with a 10 percent interest. “We look forward to the drilling of the first exploration well on this block and to a successful and promising outcome,” he added.
QatarEnergy’s Egypt operations
In May 2024, QatarEnergy signed a farm-in agreement with ExxonMobil to acquire a 40 percent participating interest in two exploration blocks offshore Egypt. Under the terms of the agreement, QatarEnergy said that it will acquire a 40 percent working interest in each of the ‘Cairo’ and ‘Masry’ Offshore Concession Agreements, while ExxonMobil will retain the remaining 60 percent working interest.
The Cairo and Masry offshore exploration blocks were awarded to ExxonMobil in January 2023. They cover an area of approximately 11,400 square kilometers in water depths of 2,000 to 3,000 meters.
In a bid to further expand its sustainable impact, QatarEnergy recently signed a partnership agreement with TotalEnergies to enter into a solar power project in Iraq. This strategic project, which will be one of the largest in the world, will consist of 2 million high-efficiency bifacial solar panels. Upon completion, the plant will be capable of supplying up to 1.25 gigawatts of solar power to the electricity grid in the Basra region of Iraq.
Read: ADNOC Gas to acquire 60 percent stake in Ruwais LNG for $5 billion from ADNOC
Fleet expansion program
Last week, the company inaugurated four new conventional-size LNG vessels built in the Samsung Heavy Industries Shipyard and the Hanwha Ocean Shipyard in the Republic of Korea as part of its historic fleet expansion program. The four new vessels, ‘Id’asah’, ‘Nuaijah’, ‘Umm Swayyah’, and ‘Lebrethah’ are part of a 128-vessel order from Korean and Chinese shipyards. This order is also part of the largest shipbuilding program in the history of the LNG shipping industry.
In the second naming ceremony, QatarEnergy named the first three new LNG vessels from Hanwha Ocean ‘Nuaijah’, ‘Umm Swayyah’, and ‘Lebrethah’, all of which will shortly join the company’s expanding LNG fleet.
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