QatarEnergy acquires 23% of offshore Egypt block from Chevron

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QatarEnergy said on Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire a 23 per cent stake in Chevron’s North El-Dabaa block, an exploration field in the Mediterranean Sea offshore Egypt.

Chevron will retain a 40 per cent interest in the concession agreement for the North El-Dabaa block. Woodside, with a 27 per cent interest, and Tharwa Petroleum Company, an Egyptian state-owned firm with a 10 per cent stake interest, are the other partners on the block.

“This agreement demonstrates our commitment to the oil and gas sector in Egypt and further strengthens our partnership with our valued partner Chevron,” said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the president and CEO of QatarEnergy.

“We look forward to the drilling of the first exploration well on this block and to a successful and promising outcome.”

The North El-Dabaa block lies about 10 km offshore the Egyptian Mediterranean shore at water depths ranging between 100 and 3,000 meters.

The state-owned energy firm has, in recent years, acquired stakes in oil and gas basins, including in Guyana, Lebanon, Namibia, Canada and South Africa, as part of the state-owned energy giant’s broader strategy to expand its global oil and gas portfolio.

QatarEnergy signed an agreement to acquire stakes in two offshore exploration blocks from ExxonMobil Canada in March 2023. The farm-in agreement for two exploration licences offshore the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador gives QatarEnergy a 28 per cent interest in licence EL 1167 with ExxonMobil Canada holding a 50 per cent stake and Cenovus Energy the remaining 22 per cent.

QatarEnergy, already among the world’s top LNG exporters, will boost its position with its North Field expansion project, which will ramp up the GCC state’s liquefaction capacity from 77 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 142 mtpa by 2030.

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