By Obiabin Onukwugha & agency reports
State-owned petroleum company of Qatar, QatarEnergy, has signed an agreement with Shell to acquire a 27 percent participating interest from its bloc in offshore Egypt.
The acquisition was revealed by authorities of QatarEnergy in a statement on Sunday.
It was reported that QatarEnergy has in recent years acquired stakes in oil and gas basins including in Guyana, Lebanon, Namibia and South Africa as part of a strategy to expand its global presence, as it also recently acquired several exploration blocks offshore Egypt.
According to the statement, the agreement, which is still subject to Egypt’s approval, stipulated that Shell will retain a 36 percent participating interest as operator of the North Cleopatra bloc, Chevron maintains a 27 percent participating interest, while Egyptian oil and gas firm, Tharwa Petroleum Company holds 10 percent.
Reuters reports that the North Cleopatra block is located in the frontier Herodotus basin in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. It covers an area of over 3,400 square km (1,313 square miles) in water depths of up to 2,600 m (8,530 ft), QatarEnergy said.
