Egypt to gain from oil, gas, analyst says

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LONDON, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Revenues from oil and natural gas are some of the few constants in a post-revolution Egypt, an analyst said.

U.S. energy explorer Apache Corp. announced plans to invest $1 billion in Egypt during the next two years. That's more than it spent in the country during the previous decade, Emirati newspaper The National reports.

Catherine Hunter, an analyst at IHS Global Insight in London, told the newspaper the energy sector was one of the sources of stability in Egypt.

"If you look at how other sectors have been declining, oil and gas investments and Suez Canal revenues have remained the two pillars of the Egyptian economy during the turmoil," she said. "Those oil and gas revenues are the things that have continued during the political changes."

The National notes Egypt's foreign reserves are depleted and the country needs at least $10 billion to recover.

Apache Chief Executive Officer Steven Farris said Apache holds around 4.5 million hectares of land in Egypt's Western Desert and the vast majority of that is undeveloped. Cairo, he told the newspaper, gets around $10 million per day from Apache's operations.