QatarEnergy has gone ahead and entered into an agreement along with Shell so as to acquire a 27% participating interest in the North Cleopatra block offshore, Egypt.
As per the terms of the agreement, with the 27% stake by QatarEnergy, which is, by the way, subject to approval by the Egyptian government, Shell is going to retain a 36% participating interest as an operator. The other participating interest holders happen to be Chevron at 27% and Tharwa Petroleum Company with 10%.
His Excellency Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs and the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, commenting on this agreement, said that they are indeed pleased to secure this additional exploration acreage, which further happens to expand their upstream exploration activities across the Arab Republic of Egypt.
He further added that they would like to take this opportunity to express their gratitude for the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources as well as their partners in the block for the valued support and cooperation they offer. They sincerely look forward to working together and also delivering their exploration targets.
It is well to be noted that the North Cleopatra block happens to be located offshore Egypt in the frontier Herodotus basin and lies north and adjacent to the North El-Dabaa block, where QatarEnergy already happens to hold a 23% participating interest in addition to the 27% stake by QatarEnergy if the terms are approved. Apparently, the North Cleopatra block goes on to cover an area of more than 3,400 square kilometers in water depths of almost 2,600 meters.
