Chevron and other companies exit Egypt's Red Sea concessions, redirect resources
CAIRO, April 18 (Reuters) - A number of multinational oil and gas companies including Chevron have exited their Red Sea oil and gas concession blocks after making no finds and have channelled their resources elsewhere in the country, the Egyptian petroleum ministry said.
As part of its efforts to become an energy hub, Egypt awarded oil and gas exploration concessions in the Red Sea for the first time to Chevron, Shell and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company in an international tender in 2019.
"Companies have spent millions on their concessions within the agreed time frames," ministry spokesperson Moataz Atef told reporters on Thursday.
He said: "One company spent $34 million on a contract that initially stipulated it will invest $10 million on exploration, but found no results," without naming said company.
Chevron confirmed it has relinquished its operated 45% stake in Red Sea Block 1, located in the northern Red Sea.
'Chevron remains committed to working together with the government of Egypt and our partners to support the growth of Egypt's energy sector through our exploration programs in the Mediterranean,' spokesperson Sally Jones said in a statement on Friday.
Chevron operates the block along with other shareholders including Australia's Woodside Energy. Shell operates Block 3 with others including Woodside Energy and QatarEnergy.
Atef did not name the other companies that he said had relinquished their Red Sea blocks. Shell declined to comment. Mubadala, Woodside Energy and QatarEnergy were not immediately available for comment.
The petroleum ministry spokesperson stressed his ministry still believed the concession areas could be fruitful.
He said both Shell and Chevron had applied for new concessions in the Mediterranean Sea, reaffirming their commitment to Egypt's oil and gas sector, without giving further details.
Chevron spokesperson Jones said it had interest in three other exploration blocks in Egypt, including two as an operator in the Mediterranean.
In January 2024, Egypt's gas production was 4.6 billion cubic meters of gas. Despite pushing for further increases, production remained on a downward trend, recording 3.6 billion cubic meters in January 2025, data from the Joint Organisations Data Initiative show.
Regarding energy supply, Atef sought to give assurances that Egypt would be able to meet rising electricity demand this summer.
"By the summer, we will have three to four floating storage and regasification units to help stabilize the supply of natural gas," he said, adding that LNG shipments have been secured, while an emergency plan is in place to address any unexpected demand spikes.
Last summer, Egypt faced power shortages exacerbated by high cooling demand. The country resorted to load-shedding and imports costing around $1.18 billion.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Labour prepared to approve BP takeover by Shell
The Government would be prepared to approve a takeover of BP by its larger rival Shell rather than allow it to fall into overseas hands. The informal guidance in Whitehall was provided before last week's reports that Shell was in early-stage talks about a possible takeover of its weaker competitor. Shell issued a statement to the stock exchange saying that no such talks were taking place. Under Britain's strict takeover rules, it is not permitted to make an offer for six months. It would require BP to invite Shell into the process should there be a bid from other sources. City investment bankers have been floating the idea of a Shell-BP deal to create a London-based European oil champion on the scale of the American behemoths for some months. Such a transaction would inevitably require scrutiny by anti-trust authorities on both sides of the Atlantic. Shell chief executive Wael Sawan publicly has made it clear that his target is to keep returning funds to shareholders through dividends and buybacks, which have been running at £3 billion a quarter. A takeover of BP is seen at Anglo-Dutch Shell headquarters as a distraction from its core mission. Nevertheless, the company felt it necessary to take informal soundings with Ministers and officials, should the opportunity to become involved with BP arise. Shell's last major UK takeover came when it bought BG Group, once the exploration arm of British Gas, for £46 billion a decade ago. Shell, with a stock market value of £150 billion, has accelerated away from BP in recent years. With a valuation of less than half that, BP would be easy pickings for most of the big oil firms. Investor interest in big oil has increased since Donald Trump returned to the White House with his 'drill, baby, drill' mantra. The open hostility of Keir Starmer's Government to fossil fuels has also softened in recent weeks. The 12-day war between Israel and Iran has been a sharp reminder of how important oil and gas is to the UK's energy and national security. BP's low valuation of £58.8 billion makes it an attractive takeover proposition for its rivals. It has been beset by problems in the boardroom, in Russia and in the newly named Gulf of America. It carries net debt of £20 billion on its balance sheet. BP is seeking to refocus on oil and gas exploration and production after flirting with becoming a carbon-zero energy group under Bernard Looney, who left under a cloud in 2023. Current chief executive Murray Auchincloss has set a challenging target to reduce net debt to £14 billion by 2027. It is also under pressure from activist investor Elliott Capital Management to improve early returns even if it means cutting back on capital investment. However, it is not clear that the big American oil companies would be interested in buying BP. Exxon Mobil is very focused on the Americas, having struck black gold in the Guyana basin. It is also deeply involved in drilling, fracking and extraction of natural gas in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico with its $64 billion (£47 billion) takeover of Pioneer Natural Resources. Rival Chevron also has been doubling down on domestic development and is pursuing a $50 billion takeover of Hess Corporation, although this has been bogged down in an arbitration process. As the former Anglo-Persian oil company founded in 1909, BP has a long history of global exploration and good relations with the British Government. It has lost none of its adventurous nature and has been developing new production and markets in Azerbaijan, India and Indonesia and is a big investor in Iraqi production. The Government will fear for the fate of such a vital flag-flier for Britain at home and abroad, and for the risk to jobs, exports and oil trading should it fall into overseas hands. A loss of its London stock exchange quotation would be a devastating blow to the UK. Some City advisers have been alerted that their services will be needed should, for any reason, the current six-month cooling-off period on a Shell-BP transaction be interrupted.
Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Daily Mirror
This white bedding set is £85 less than The White Company
"Not only does the sheets look good on, but they help aid a good night's sleep" The right bedding can completely transform your space, whether you're aiming to create a tranquil haven to retreat to at night or freshen up your bedroom without needing a paintbrush. When in doubt, white bedding can be a timeless choice. It matches everything, always appears clean and crisp, and exudes that dreamy boutique-hotel vibe. I'm currently on the hunt for new luxury white bedding sets to spruce up my sleep space, and The White Company is a great place to start. I'm particularly fond of its Emmerson bedding set, with its woven jacquard stripes and soft sateen finish - but with a £110 price tag for a double duvet and £28 per pillowcase, it was beginning to feel more like a payday indulgence than a spontaneous buy. Which is where I spotted one for much less at the affordable bedding brand, Dusk. Its Hotel Stripe bedding set looks strikingly similar, featuring the same soft white finish and subtle striped detail, but comes at a fraction of the cost. A double duvet cover is priced at £41, while a pair of matching pillowcases will set you back £10. That means shoppers can save over £85 compared to The White Company's version, reports Yorkshire Live. The Hotel Stripe set, crafted from 200-thread-count combed cotton, is the perfect blend of softness, crispness, and breathability. Just what you need for those warmer nights to keep things fresh all year round. It's available in three sizes: double, king and super king. Shoppers might also like this similar style from Soak & Sleep, made from luxurious Egyptian cotton, with prices starting from £19.20. Alternatively, Christy's scalloped set oozes luxury and wouldn't look out of place in a posh hotel. Dusk customers are raving about the Hotel Stripe set, which boasts an impressive 4.83-star rating. One satisfied customer said: "Possibly the softest, most comfortable pillowcases I have ever slept on. Not only do they look good on the bed, but they also help aid a good night's sleep. I would highly recommend it to anyone." A second added their praise: "Excellent quality and will be back for more." While another piped up: "I bought these pillowcases for the extra pillows on my bed to match my existing duvet set. Matches perfectly. "It arrived quickly, too. Happy with my purchase." However, there was a minor niggle regarding size, as one customer pointed out: "Looks quite nice and feels soft, good value for money, but I wish the pillowcases were sold with duvet." Meanwhile, another satisfied Dusk customer chimed in, saying: "Perfect feel, smooth, great quality. Ordered for our guest bedroom, and it's perfect."
Times
2 days ago
- Times
Shell's pause on BP takeover gives all sides a useful breather
The swimming pool has gone from the basement at Shell Centre, the London headquarters of the FTSE 100 oil and gas company, as has the rifle range. The latter went about 20 years ago, while the pool was a casualty of the 2016 redevelopment of the sprawling South Bank site, which sits in the shadow of the London Eye. Some things don't change, however, and Shell staff would have heard the news this week that their employer had looked at buying BP with a shrug of the shoulders. Not that old chestnut again! 'Shell + BP = British energy behemoth' is an equation that has been chalked on many blackboards over the years, mostly those of eager investment bankers dreaming of enough fees to pay for an early retirement. Sometimes it has been more than just a dream. It came up during the oil-industry merger mania of the late 1990s, when the oil price dropped to $10 a barrel. John (now Lord) Browne raced off in a different direction, doing an astonishing string of deals including mergers with Amoco and Arco in the US and breaking into Russia with the creation of TNK-BP, a deal that two decades later still looms large in any discussions of BP's future. Browne reportedly looked quite hard at the merits of a Shell merger just before he left in 2007 after falling out with his chairman, the late Peter Sutherland; the proposed deal added to the friction. This was later dismissed as 'scenario planning,' but Tony Hayward, Browne's successor, had to deny the pair were talking not long after he took the job. Hayward soon had other things to worry about: a fatal blowout on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico caused one of the world's biggest oil spills. That eventually cost Hayward his job and BP some $65 billion. Now the deal is back on again — sort of. Bloomberg reported in May that Shell was looking at making a move and The Wall Street Journal said this week that the two companies were in early talks. Not so fast! Shell poured cold water on the whole thing with a statement to the stock exchange on Thursday saying 'it has not been actively considering making an offer for BP'. You might think this means the bankers will have to rethink their early retirement plans, but that is not necessarily the case. Shell's statement means it is barred (by rule 2.8 of the City takeover code) from making an offer for six months. The rule, however, does not much restrict its room to manoeuvre. Shell can jump in if someone else makes a move on BP, if the board of BP agrees to a Shell approach, or if Shell can manage to convince the Takeover Panel, which polices the code, that there has been 'a material change of circumstances'. In reality, Thursday's statement means Wael Sawan, Shell's chief executive, is keeping his powder dry. He can sit back, do more work on whether a deal makes sense and has the option to get involved if a rival tries to beat him to the punch. There are three good reasons for Sawan wanting to wait. First, he has only been chief executive for two years and is still working his way through his big internal transformation plan. The next stage, amalgamating what were separate technical divisions into the operating businesses, is due to kick off early next year. Complicating that shake-up with the integration of BP could be a nightmare and many big deals fail on the difficult nitty-gritty of merging two different company systems and cultures. CHRIS DUGGAN Second, the oil price may work in his favour. One of the surprises of the past fortnight is how muted the market's reaction was to the Israel-Iran hostilities and the American attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Despite all the talk of $100 a barrel, the price hovered around in the mid-70s last week and dropped to $68 after Donald Trump 's announcement of a ceasefire. That suggests, as many analysts have pointed out, a well-supplied market, with the likelihood of lower prices should tensions in the Middle East ease. Lower prices makes life trickier for BP and has in past always been the catalyst for oil industry deals. • Does it make sense for Shell to buy BP? Third on Sawan's list is the Russia-Ukraine war. A ceasefire could help to push the price down and might also give some clarity on BP's Russian interests. It said three years ago it would get out of its 19.75 per cent stake in Rosneft (the legacy of Browne's TNK deal) but hasn't yet found a way to do it, leaving the shares in limbo. The pause should also give ministers time to think about how they might react if the merger ever became a reality. Having an oil major based on home soil is extremely useful to governments for all kinds of reasons: advice on energy markets, intelligence from interesting parts of the world where the local BP or Shell manager might be better plugged in than the British ambassador, and head offices that provide hundreds of well-paid highly-skilled jobs and, sometimes, a lucrative stream of tax revenue. Britain has been fortunate to have two, and it would probably not be too much of a blow if they united as one much larger entity. It would be a serious blow, however, if the merged company decided, as some multinationals have in recent years, that it would be better to have a primary share listing in the United States rather than the UK. Sawan has been asked about this in the past and given guarded answers, saying that Shell might have to look at 'all options' if US oil companies continued to attract a higher valuation than those listed in London. A shift across the Atlantic would be a grievous wound to the already struggling London stock market. On top of that would be the loss of jobs and all that intangible value oil and gas companies can quietly provide. Shell's six-month pause gives its management time to reflect on what to do next and the government time to work on plans to make sure that if a merger does happen the combined company stays here.
