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Maritime border demarcation agreements boost Egypt's petroleum resources

Xinhua News,CAIRO
2020-08-10 13:35

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CAIRO, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The recently signed maritime border demarcation agreements between Egypt and Greece will enhance Cairo's economic and petroleum resources, allowing Egypt to explore for oil and natural gas in its exclusive economic zones in the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, Egyptian experts said.

Egypt and Greece signed on Aug. 6 an agreement on the demarcation of the maritime borders between the two countries and setting up an exclusive economic zone between them in the Mediterranean Sea.

The deal allows both Egypt and Greece to maximize the use of available resources in the exclusive economic zone between them, particularly the potential oil and gas reserves.

This is the third maritime demarcation agreement that Egypt signed as it had previously signed an agreement with its Mediterranean neighbor Cyprus in 2013, and another in 2016 with Saudi Arabia to demarcate their maritime borders in the Red Sea.

The signing of the agreement with Cyprus allowed Egypt to discover the "Zohr" field, the largest natural gas field in the Mediterranean, whose daily production exceeds three billion cubic feet of natural gas.

This field helped Egypt achieve self-sufficiency in gas and resume exports.

Egypt also announced in May the signing of agreements with three foreign companies to explore for oil and gas for the first time in the Red Sea, which experts see as one of the fruits of signing the maritime border demarcation agreement with Saudi Arabia.

"Signing agreements to demarcate the maritime borders brings many economic benefits to Egypt, within the framework of enhancing its oil and natural gas resources," Medhat Youssef, a petroleum expert, told Xinhua.

Youssef, a former head of the Egyptian General Petroleum Authority, said that Egypt used to face a problem before the maritime borders were demarcated, such as the fear of foreign companies to work in the exclusive economic zones "because they might be disputed areas."

"Egypt, before signing these agreements, was not able to launch bids for oil and gas exploration because this could lead to border disputes and huge financial losses for companies," the expert explained.

Regarding the Egyptian-Greek agreement, Youssef said the agreement guarantees that no border disputes will occur between the two countries sooner or later, "which gives international companies great confidence to work in the exclusive economic zone of Egypt."

The expert affirmed that the area between Egypt and Greece is very rich of oil and natural gas resources.

"The recently signed Egyptian-Greek agreement will attract international oil and gas exploration companies...we will soon hear about Egypt signing agreements with big companies to explore for oil," Youssef revealed.

Meanwhile, Tarek Fahmy, professor of political science at Cairo University, said signing these agreements preserves Egypt's rights in the region.

"The border demarcation agreement between Egypt and Greece recognizes the rights of both parties, and will enable Cairo to start exploration for oil and gas, similar to what it did after signing the agreement with Cyprus," the expert told Xinhua.

He explained that the agreement will also enhance Egypt's petroleum resources as well as its ability to be a regional energy hub during as Egypt has great potential in this field.

"Cairo's establishment of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum will greatly serve Egypt and the member states, and the agreement with Greece will constitute a new stage within the framework of this forum," Fahmy said.

For his part, ambassador Gamal Bayoumi, a former assistant foreign minister, told Xinhua that signing the Egyptian-Greek agreement is an important legal development that would enable both countries to well use their resources.

Through the agreement, he explained, Egypt conveyed messages to many parties, mainly investors who want to invest in this region.

He added that Egypt would send the United Nations a copy of the agreement, which would boost Egypt's oil resources and secure the gas pipeline that Egypt is trying to build in order to export gas to Europe.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described on Friday the deal as "worthless," noting Turkey has resumed energy exploration activities in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
 
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