QatarEnergy, the state-owned energy giant of Qatar, has agreed to farm in a key offshore block of Shell in Egypt.
The Qatari heavyweight said that it has agreed with Shell to go ahead and acquire a 27% participating interest in the North Cleopatra block of Egypt.
According to QatarEnergy, under the terms of the agreement, which are indeed subject to approval by the Egyptian government, Shell is going to retain a 36% participating interest as operator.
The other major stakeholders located in North Cleopatra happen to be Chevron with 27% and Tharwa Petroleum Company from Egypt with 10%.
It is well to be noted that, as per the state-owned player, the North Cleopatra block happens to be located offshore Egypt in the frontier Herodotus basin and is at the north of and adjacent to the North El-Dabaa block, wherein QatarEnergy happens to hold a 23% interest.
Apparently, the frontier offshore asset happens to cover an area of over 3400 square kilometers in water depths of almost 2600 meters.
The chief executive of QatarEnergy, Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, said that they are indeed pleased to secure additional exploration acreage, which, by the way, is going to further expand their upstream exploration activities across the Arab Republic of Egypt.
The footprint expansion
Interestingly, QatarEnergy has been expanding its footprint across Egypt in the years that have gone by.
In November 2025, the Qatari state giant went on to agree to farm into the key frontier exploration block offshore Egypt of Chevron.
QatarEnergy had earlier said that it had agreed with Chevron to acquire a working interest of 23% in the North El-Dabaa–H4 block located in the Mediterranean Sea.
It is worth noting that the H4 exploration block happens to lie at around 10 kilometers offshore Egypt within the water depths that range between 100 and 3000 meters.
Apparently, QatarEnergy in 2024 also went on to agree to farm into a couple of exploration blocks offshore Egypt of ExxonMobil.
QatarEnergy went on to pick up 40% stakes within Cairo as well as the Masry offshore concession agreements, whereas ExxonMobil, the operator, retained the remaining 60% of working interests.
Meanwhile, QatarEnergy, Eni, and BP got the grant permission to explore a fresh block offshore Egypt in 2023 as part of the nation’s earlier bidding round.
Exploration along with the production rights was granted as part of the 2022 EGAS International Bid Round.
QatarEnergy, apart from this key offshore block of Shell, happens to hold interests in three other licenses across the country, namely, the Red Sea blocks 3 as well as 4, and also the North Marakia block, which is located in the Mediterranean Sea.
