UK’s Capricorn seeks better term for investments in Egypt

The British oil and gas producer Capricorn Energy is in advanced talks with the state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation to improve the terms for its gas concession agreements in the Western Desert.

The talks include an improved gas price for incremental production and new discoveries, plus “modernised” commercial terms, the company said.

Capricorn and the Cairo-based independent exploration and production company Cheiron Energy, its operating partner, each hold a 50 percent participating interest in the Egyptian concession.

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In September 2021, the British company and Cheiron acquired a portfolio of upstream oil and gas production, development and exploration interests in the Western Desert.

In 2023, the company started revamping its strategy to focus on Egyptian assets.

Capricorn said in January that it would continue to focus on its self-funding Egyptian business unit in 2025, ensuring revenues from the assets provide the cash flow to sustain and eventually grow investment in Egypt.

This month, Egypt invited international companies to bid to develop 13 new oil and gas sites in the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Suez and the Western Desert, as it attempts to reverse a fall in natural gas production.

The new sites could attract $700 million of investment, and perhaps more, if discoveries are made in the undeveloped areas, the local Arabic language daily Al-Ahram reported.