Egypt is gearing up to launch a bid round for acreage in the Red Sea, the country’s Petroleum Ministry revealed on 14 October. Details remain thin, though the social media announcement mentions that the bid round will be launched via the government’s Egypt Upstream Gateway (EUG) portal and will include four regions of the Red Sea.
While Cairo was able to attract energy majors Chevron and Shell through its initial Red Sea offering in 2019, it was unable to convince those firms to stick around as they subsequently relinquished their awarded acreage earlier this year (MEES, 25 April). It is unclear how much of a deterrent the threat of potential attacks from Yemen’s Houthi rebels played on the decision to abandon the acreage or whether prospectivity was low. (CONTINUED - 233 WORDS)