On Wednesday, Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum struck a $9 billion deal with Apache, granting the multinational American oil and gas company access to dig and explore seven wells in the El Bahariya concession in the Western Desert, according to a statement published via the Middle East News Agency. The agreement signed was between Abed Ezz El-Regal (CEO of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation) and David Chi (Vice President and General Manager of Apache Egypt).

Apache is investing EGP 537 million ($9 billion) to carry out the excavation in the wells, which are situated in East Bahariya, in the hopes of drilling and producing oil and natural gas. Minister of Petroleum, Tarek El-Molla, said that producing and reserving oil and natural gas in the country could potentially attract more foreign investment

Egypt has previously signed deals with Apache, which has been operating in Egypt since 1996 and currently holds 25 different concessions and this deal marks the 87th deal of its kind since 2014.

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