Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Karim Badawi has announced the launch of the 2026 international bid round for crude oil and natural gas exploration, offering 14 new exploration areas to international and Egyptian companies in a move aimed at attracting more investment, boosting domestic production and supporting the targets of the government’s five-year production growth plan.
The announcement came during a meeting between the minister and the heads and managers of international oil companies operating in Egypt as investment partners. The meeting reviewed current production and exploration performance, discussed plans for exploration, field development and increasing production over the next five years, and highlighted new investment opportunities.
The bid round, which opened for applications on Tuesday, includes eight exploration areas offered by the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) across the Mediterranean, the Nile Delta and North Sinai. Applications for these areas will close at noon Cairo time on 11 December 2026.
It also includes six exploration areas offered by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) in the Gulf of Suez, Sinai and the Western Desert. Applications for these areas will close at noon Cairo time on 11 November 2026.
The areas are being offered digitally through the Egypt Upstream Gateway (EUG) under production-sharing agreements within a transparent and competitive framework.
The bid round includes the provision of technical data through the gateway, responses to investor enquiries, and the receipt and technical and financial evaluation of submitted bids.
Badawi said the new bid round offers promising, diverse and competitive investment opportunities, many of which are located close to existing producing fields and infrastructure, including pipeline networks, processing facilities and export terminals. He noted that this would help reduce development costs and accelerate the tie-in of new discoveries to production.
He added that the offered areas contain diverse geological targets across both offshore and onshore locations, creating attractive opportunities for international companies already operating in Egypt to expand their investments, while also encouraging new international oil companies to enter the Egyptian market for the first time.
