Egypt signs oil drilling deals with U.S. firms

CAIRO, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Egypt has signed three deals with two U.S. companies on oil drilling in the Western Desert of the Arab country, the Egyptian Oil Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The three deals signed with Apache and Merlon Oil Corporations are worth about 80 million U.S. dollars including the digging of 17 wells for oil exploration in Egypt's Western Desert, said the statement.

"The strategy of the Ministry of Petroleum aims to attract further foreign investments in the field of oil and gas exploration to make use of the oil and gas potentials in several areas of the country," said Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Tarek al-Molla.

Located in North Africa and enjoying massive oil and gas potentials, Egypt attracted several international firms for oil exploration over the past years.

Italy's oil giant Eni said earlier in August that it intended to pump investments of 3.5 billion U.S. dollars into Egypt in 2018, representing half of the company's annual investments.

The Italian company, which has been operating in Egypt for over 60 years, announced in August 2015 the discovery of the largest gas field in the Egyptian offshore of the Mediterranean Sea.