British multinational oil and gas company (BP) one of the world’s seven oil and gas “supermajors”, has announced its decision recently to sell its interests in the Gulf of Suez oil in Egypt to Dubai-based Dragon Oil. According to the agreement, BP will sell to Dragon Oil its producing and exploration concessions, including its interest in the Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company (GUPCO) .The deal is unofficially reported to be around $600 million, as per industry and banking sources and has been put up for approval to the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources .The Ministry is expected to clear it by the second half of 2019. The move is in line with BP’s announcements to divest over $10 billion over the next 2 years.
Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said in a statement that Egypt continues to be a core growth and investment region for BP .The company’s investment in Egypt is estimated to be around $12 billion with plans to invest another $3 billion in the next two years. BP plans to focus its operations on Egypt’s offshore gas reserves. In February this year, the company launched the Giza/Fayoum field in the West Nile Delta offshore area with an estimated output of around 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. According to its 2018 annual report, BP’s total net production in Egypt reached 49,000 bpd of oil and gas liquids and 878 million cubic feet per day of gas in 2018.
