Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly reviewed on Thursday, September 17, 2026, a report submitted by Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi on efforts of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources to support and promote development in Upper Egypt,.
The report said that the ministry is attaching great importance to developing petroleum-sector activities in Upper Egypt as a key pillar of economic development, through the South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Company (Ganope) and its subsidiaries, in coordination with various petroleum-sector companies and relevant authorities.
“The efforts form part of the state's drive to achieve balanced and sustainable development across Egypt's regions and maximize the use of available natural and economic resources,” the report said. The petroleum sector's plan for developing activities in Upper Egypt is based on three integrated tracks; the first involves short-term measures to expand exploration and production activities in existing development areas and maximize the use of available infrastructure.
The second track aims to accelerate exploration and prospecting in promising areas and ensure that technical programs are implemented on schedule, enabling new discoveries to be made and quickly brought into production. The third focuses on intensifying marketing activities and attracting new investment to open areas in the southern Western Desert and Eastern Desert, the southern Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea, alongside developing infrastructure and refining and manufacturing projects and ensuring the availability of petroleum products.
The report also highlighted intensified ministry efforts in Upper Egypt to expand exploration activities and attract investment, increase and develop petroleum production, expand refining capacity and maximize added value, broaden natural gas connections, and strengthen the petroleum sector's contribution to community development projects.
“These efforts are part of an integrated plan aimed at achieving a tangible economic and development impact in Upper Egypt,” it said. The report reviewed efforts in exploration, production and investment attraction, noting the ministry's focus on opening new investment opportunities in frontier areas of the southern Western Desert.
The areas, including West Assiut and El-Dakhla, cover extensive tracts and have promising geological potential. Work is aimed at developing comprehensive geological and geophysical databases to identify promising exploration opportunities and promote them to international oil companies.
The ministry has also signed six preliminary agreements to expand exploration activities in Upper Egypt in the areas of North Baraka, Red Sea, Kharit, South Baraka, Southeast Ras El Ush and East Gabal El Zeit. The agreements represent an important addition to the exploration map of southern Egypt, the report said.
Exploration work in these areas is scheduled to begin in 2027, with potential production estimated at between 5,000 and 11,000 barrels of crude oil per day by 2030.