The Phoenix: Prospects of Egypt’s Oil and Gas Sector

... Rosneft announced an unexpected deal of buying a 30% share in the Shorouk block, which includes Zohr field. Before that, only Lukoil expressed interest in investing in upstream projects in Egypt, where it had already had some investment in oil and gas production. Lukoil reportedly negotiated with Eni about buying a 20% stake in the Zohr field. There was no information about any other Russian companies’ interest in Egyptian projects. It is worth noting that the deal with Rosneft allowed the Italian firm to get close to its goal of reducing their share in the Zohr project to 50% [2] . Russian reluctance to enter exploration projects in Egypt is a logical choice on the one hand, yet indefensible on the other. On one hand,...