CAIRO, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources announced on Thursday that 29 agreements with a total investment of about 1.2 billion U.S. dollars for oil and natural gas exploration in the country have been signed in 2023.

       The ministry said in a statement that 65 new oil and gas sites, including 51 for oil and 14 for gas, were discovered in the Western Desert, the Gulf of the Suez, Nile delta, and Sinai Peninsula.

       It added that 87 new wells were drilled in 2023.

       Egypt's total production of petroleum in 2023 amounted to about 74 million tons, including 28 million tons of crude oil and condensates and 45 million tons of natural gas, it said.

       The ministry said that five projects of oil and gas fields have been put on the map of production, targeting daily production of 15,000 barrels of crude and condensates, and some 144 million cubic feet of gas.

       Egypt aims to become a regional hub for the trade of oil and liquefied natural gas after major discoveries were made in recent years, including the Zohr gas field in the Mediterranean which holds an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.