On 28 December Egypt’s Minster of Petroleum Tarek el-Molla announced that the government had approved four oil and gas deals worth a total of $230m.

Two of the four agreements are with state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) for exploration in the Red Sea and Western Desert areas.

The other two are with another state-owned entity Ganoub El-Wadi Petroleum Holding Company (Ganope).

Ganope specialises in exploration and production in South Egypt.

The agreements include drilling 17 new wells, according to El-Molla.

Egypt’s oil and gas sector has been transformed over the last three years by offshore exploration success.

The Italian oil company Eni discovered the giant gas field Zohr in Egyptian waters in 2015.

Zohr was brought online earlier this month and is expected to see initial production of 350 million cubic feet of gas a-day.