United Arab Emirates-based Dragon Oil has made its first oil discovery in the Gulf of Suez, the Egyptian petroleum ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The discovery is one of the largest in the area in the past 20 years, it said, adding that the field could contain around 100 million barrels in reserves.
In a statement from its headquarters in Dubai, Dragon Oil also estimated the field’s reserves at 100 million barrels.
Dragon Oil plc is an independent international oil and gas exploration, development and production business. It is based and registered in Dubai and its operations are primarily located in Turkmenistan.
In a statement reviewed by Asharq Al-Awsat, the ministry said that the oil reserve is one of the first discoveries made by Dubai-based Dragon Oil Ltd after it had completed the purchase of BP’s BP.L oil concessions in Egypt’s Gulf of Suez.
Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Tarek El Molla met on Tuesday with Dragon Oil president Ali Al Jarwan, on the sidelines of the EGYPS (Egypt Petroleum Show) 2022 conference, underway in Cairo.
Molla held bilateral meetings with the Secretary-General of OPEC Mohammad Barkindo and Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol.
During the meeting with Birol, Molla discussed ways to support cooperation between Egypt and IEA in the fields of clean energy in light of the global energy map shift and the impact of new supply and demand patterns, amid calls to rely on cleaner energy sources.
Molla stressed that the IEA has a long experience in the fields of research, development, and improvement of energy efficiency and its uses, and has valuable publications concerned with global energy issues.
For his part, Barkindo praised Egypt’s achievements in the energy field over the years.
During the meeting, Barkindo also highlighted Egypt’s strategic location among oil-producing and consuming countries.
Barkindo expressed pleasure at his participation in the activities of the fifth edition of EGYPS.
Molla said that the discussions reviewed the current situation of the global oil markets, the successive developments and significant challenges being witnessed.
His talks with Barkindo also tackled available opportunities to achieve a state of balance between supply and demand for oil, as well as the opportunities of the global energy sector to launch a new phase in the transition to clean energy and climate change.
