Hibiscus Petroleum unit wins concession in Egypt

Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd’s wholly-owned unit, Gulf Hibiscus Ltd, has been awarded the South East Ras El Ush concession (Block 2) in Egypt by the Ganoub El-Wadi Petroleum Holding Co, an entity of the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum.

Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd is Malaysia’s first listed independent oil and gas exploration and production company.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Hibiscus Petroleum said the acceptance of the concession provided the company an opportunity to explore and develop in an area which was one of the oldest producing basins in the world.

The basin had over 1,900 drilled wells with a total of 123 producing fields and an annual production of about 180 million barrels of oil, it said.

“The the award was made pursuant to the successful submission of a bid by Gulf Hibiscus, together with its partner, Pacific Oil Ltd, for a joint equal ownership of the concession,” it said.

Pacific Oil will be the operator of the concession, to leverage on its management team’s experience in Egypt.

The group said the award was subject to the execution of a definitive agreement.

Gulf Hibiscus’ financial exposure to undertake the minimum work commitment is estimated at US$8mil over the first four years, it said.

Source: The Star – Malaysia