Egypt to hold tender for energy drilling in the Mediterranean Sea

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Egypt will hold a tender for energy drilling in the Mediterranean Sea, Egyptian Minister of Investment Osama Saleh said yesterday.

Saleh said they would invite leading international companies by the end of the year or at the beginning of next year to hold a tender for energy exploration and drilling in the Mediterranean Sea.

“The explorations by the Greek Cypriot administration entered into the continental shelf of Egypt, which is a subject of international law and agreements,” Saleh said.

Saleh said Egypt had laws that protected investors, adding that there was no situation that would affect investors negatively in Egypt. “There is no need to give investors in Egypt assurances. I’ve talked to investors in Egypt, and they are satisfied with the situation and have plans to do more business and expand their existing businesses. Egypt is a state with laws and institutions to protect investors.”

The investment system in Egypt is different, Saleh said. “Turkish investors prefer to build export-oriented factories in free trade zones because they are exempt from taxes.”

Egypt has bilateral agreements with Arab, African, European and American countries. “Therefore we present our investors a market with a population of 1.5 billion. The products exported from Egypt to these countries are not subject to customs and extra taxes.”

Saleh said a lot of Turkish factories had moved to Egypt because of qualified and cheap workers. “Among our targets are construction and contracting companies,” he added.