en.Wedoany.com Reported - Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has launched its 2026 international bid round for oil and gas exploration, offering 14 exploration blocks to Egyptian and international energy companies, covering the Mediterranean Sea, the Nile Delta, North Sinai, the Gulf of Suez, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Western Desert.
Among them, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) is offering 8 blocks in the Mediterranean Sea, the Nile Delta, and North Sinai, with a bid submission deadline of 12:00 PM (noon) on December 14, 2026. The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) is offering the remaining 6 blocks in the Gulf of Suez, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Western Desert, with a bid submission deadline of 12:00 PM (noon) on November 11, 2026.
The blocks in this round will be awarded under production sharing agreement (PSA) models, with technical data access, company consultations, bid document submission, and technical and financial evaluations conducted through the Egypt Upstream Gateway (EUG) platform. Some blocks are adjacent to existing oil and gas fields, pipelines, processing facilities, and export terminals, which would facilitate the development of future discoveries by leveraging existing infrastructure.
The Egyptian government hopes that this bid round will expand exploration investment, increase oil and gas reserves, and curb the decline in domestic production. Egypt's natural gas output has been under sustained pressure in recent years, and growing demand from domestic power generation and industrial gas consumption has driven the country to expand liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports. The new round of upstream exploration has become a key component of its efforts to enhance energy supply capacity.
Egypt plans to drill 480 oil and gas exploration wells over the next five years, with related investments expected to reach $5.7 billion, of which 101 wells are scheduled for 2026. The results of this bid round for the 14 blocks will determine the operators and drilling plans for the next phase of exploration activities.
