RIYADH: Egypt has planned to offer three international tenders for oil and gas exploration and production in 2023, besides drilling 300 wells until 2025, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said on Sunday. While speaking during the inauguration of the Egypt International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, the minister said his country’s oil exports jumped 41 percent in 2022 to $18.2 billion from $12.9 billion a year earlier. At the end of 2022, he added that Egypt put forward an international bid for gas exploration in 12 blocks in the Mediterranean and the Nile Delta through the Natural Gas Holding Co. He added that the bidding will continue until next May. In January, Egypt awarded eight oil and gas exploration blocks to BP, ENI, Apex International, Energean and United Energy to invest a minimum of $250 million and drill at least 33 exploration wells spread within the Mediterranean, Western Desert, and the Gulf of Suez blocks. Egypt is working to become a major energy player in the region by producing and re-exporting gas. The country currently has the capacity to produce between 6.5 and 7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. Bogged down by rising inflation and devaluating currency, Egypt is looking to bolster its economy by selling stakes in at least 32 companies by the end of March 2024, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly said earlier this month. Among the planned sales are stakes in three prominent banks, Banque du Caire, United Bank of Egypt and Arab African International Bank, Reuters reported. Insurance, electricity and energy companies will also be on the block as well as hotels and industrial and agricultural concerns. Earlier this month, Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics revealed that the country’s annual urban consumer price inflation jumped to a higher-than-expected 25.8 percent in January, its fastest in more than five years. The rise from 21.3 percent in December followed a series of currency devaluations starting in March 2022, a prolonged shortage of foreign currency, and continuing delays in getting imports into the country. The Egyptian pound has fallen by nearly 50 percent since March. The data from the statistics agency showed that January inflation was the highest since December 2017, a year after a steep devaluation. (With input from Reuters)