Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, signed three new agreements for oil and gas exploration in the Western Desert. The agreements were signed with EGPC, Apache, and Merlon.

According to a statement from the Ministry, the first and second agreements were signed with Apache. The first was for a concession area northwest of Razak in the Western Desert, with an investment of around $61 million. The second agreement was for the concession area south of al-Shawish, with investments of about $12 million.

The third agreement signed by the Ministry and EGPC was with Merlon Company. The agreement covers the Fayoum concession with investments of about $6 million.

Following the agreement signings, El Molla said that the Ministry’s strategy is aimed at attracting increased foreign investment in the petroleum sector.