QatarEnergy has signed an agreement to buy a 23% working interest in a concession agreement offshore Egypt from the block’s operator Chevron, the state firm of Qatar said on Monday.
QatarEnergy will acquire 23% of the North El-Dabaa (H4) Block in the Mediterranean from Chevron, which will retain a 40% interest in the concession.
The other partners on the block are Woodside with a 27% interest and Tharwa Petroleum Company, an Egyptian state company, with a 10% interest.
The H4 Block lies about 10 kilometers (6.1 miles) offshore the Egyptian Mediterranean shore at water depths ranging between 100 and 3,000 meters (328 – 9,842 ft).
“We look forward to the drilling of the first exploration well on this block and to a successful and promising outcome,” said QatarEnergy’s president and CEO, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, who is also Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs.
This is yet another expansion for QatarEnergy in exploration blocks internationally.
In Egypt, where Western companies including Chevron plan more investments,, QatarEnergy signed earlier this year a farm-in agreement with ExxonMobil to acquire a 40% participating interest in two exploration blocks offshore Egypt, while Exxon as operator will retain the remaining 60% working interest.
The Qatari company is also boosting its presence in exploration hotspots such as Namibia, South Africa, and Suriname.
In March this year, TotalEnergies and QatarEnergy expanded their efforts to explore for oil and gas in the Orange Basin offshore Namibia by acquiring a nearby license in the basin in South African waters.
Following completion of the transaction, TotalEnergies will hold a 33% participating interest in Block 3B/4B and assume operatorship, while QatarEnergy will hold a 24% stake.
Then in July, QatarEnergy signed an agreement with Chevron to buy a 20% working interest in a production-sharing contract for block 5 offshore Suriname.
The operator of the block, Chevron, will retain a 40% interest, while Paradise Oil Company, an affiliate of Suriname’s national oil company Staatsolie, will own the remaining 40%.
Source: Oilprice.com