Italian oil and gas producer Eni has made three new oil and gas discoveries in its Meleiha and South West Meleiha concessions in the Western Desert, the Oil Ministry announced in a statement. The three discoveries have a collective potential daily output of 6k barrels of oil, while the collective size of the deposits is estimated at 50 mn barrels. “The new discoveries have potential for additional appraisal and production wells that will be immediately planned in order to sustain the Agiba production plateau,” the company wrote in a press release (pdf). Earlier this year, Eni merged its Meleiha and Meleiha Deep concessions in the Western Desert, creating the Merged Meleiha concession. Eni operates some of Egypt’s most important oil and gas resources including the giant Zohr natural gas field, the Noor concession, and the Damietta LNG plant.

S&P maintains Egypt’s B credit rating with stable outlook: S&P Global Ratings has maintained Egypt’s B credit rating with a stable outlook, while forecasting a return to pre-covid levels of economic growth in two years, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. The ratings agency — which kept the country’s sovereign rating unchanged despite covid — sees Egypt’s economy growing at a 5.5% clip in FY2023-2024. It also said it expects the overall budget deficit to narrow to 6.8% at the end of the current fiscal year, compared to 7.3% in FY2020-2021, thanks to a wider tax base. S&P expects the country to achieve a primary surplus of 1.5% in the current fiscal year.