鉴于石油和矿产资源部旨在吸引更多对天然气和原油勘探和开采的投资的战略，以及石油部门在通过提供激励措施吸引投资和营销高风险处女区来扩大勘探和生产业务方面取得的成功，在这些地区的公司面临挑战的情况下，已达成协议制定石油协议制度，以提高埃及金融体系的竞争力，并在石油部门和外国合作伙伴之间引入新的产品分成制度，这将有助于鼓励合作伙伴注入投资，同时实现适当的经济回报，鼓励在获得相关国家当局的必要批准后继续和增加在这些处女区的勘探和开发业务。

在此背景下，埃及天然气控股公司“EGAS”与埃克森美孚埃及上游有限公司*原则上*签署了一份谅解备忘录，旨在为新协议体系奠定基础，并在埃克森美孚埃及上游有限公司在其于 2023 年 11 月赢得的地中海开罗近海和马斯里近海区域取得积极成果后开始实施该体系。如果勘探钻探取得积极成果，这一新体系的应用将激励公司为这些区域制定全面的发展计划，特别是因为该公司已经完成了约 11,000 平方公里区域的三维地震勘测，目前正在评估这些数据，为开始勘探钻探计划做准备。

值得注意的是，新制度将激励企业认真开展勘探作业，并使政府和企业能够在重大发现时分享预期收益，实现超出预期的利润，同时将政府的份额控制在与全球市场相当的范围内。作为提高生产水平、满足各种消费和发展需求的努力的一部分，该部将不遗余力地为愿意注入新投资的认真企业提供一切必要的支持。

In light of the strategy of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources aimed at attracting more investments in the exploration of gas and crude oil and their exploitation, and the successes of the petroleum sector in increasing cooperation with global companies to expand exploration and production operations through providing incentives to attract investment and marketing high-risk virgin areas amidst the challenges faced by companies in those regions, an agreement has been reached to develop the petroleum agreements system to enhance the competitiveness of the financial system applied in Egypt and to introduce a new production-sharing system between the petroleum sector and foreign partners, which will contribute to encouraging partners to inject investments while achieving a suitable economic return that encourages the continuation and increase of exploration and development operations in those virgin areas, with the necessary approvals from the relevant state authorities.

In this context, a memorandum of understanding *in principle* has been signed between the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company "EGAS" and ExxonMobil *Egypt Upstream Limited* to establish the foundations for the new agreements system and to commence its implementation in the event that ExxonMobil *Egypt Upstream Limited* achieves positive results in the Cairo Offshore and Masri Offshore areas in the Mediterranean Sea, which the company won in November 2023. The application of this new system will serve as an incentive for the company to develop a comprehensive development plan for those areas if positive results are achieved from exploratory drilling, especially since the company has completed a three-dimensional seismic survey of an area of approximately 11,000 square kilometers and is currently evaluating that data in preparation for the commencement of exploratory drilling programmes.

It is worth noting that the new system will incentivise companies to undertake exploratory operations seriously and will enable the government *and the companies* to share the anticipated gains in the event of significant discoveries and to achieve profits greater than expected, while placing the government's share within a range comparable to the global market. The ministry spares no effort in providing all necessary support to serious companies willing to inject new investments, as part of the ministry's efforts to increase production levels and meet various consumption and developmental needs.