CAIRO, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Egypt has signed an agreement with energy giant British Petroleum (BP) to drill in the Gulf of Suez region, official Ahram Online reported on Monday.

The agreement was signed by Abed Ezz El-Regal, CEO of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, and Hesham Mekkawy, regional president of BP, North Africa.

Exploration will take place at North-East Ramadan in the Gulf of the Suez region, with 46 million U.S. dollars investment and a 4 million U.S. dollars grant to dig three wells.

Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla said his ministry has ambitious plans to raise investment in the petroleum sector in Egypt, which will increase the domestic production of petrol and natural gas, as well as increasing the country's reserves, according to Ahram Online.

He added that the new agreement is a result of the global bidding for oil exploration issued by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) in 2016.

This agreement is the 88th since 2014, and the EGPC is working on signing 13 more.

Once an energy exporter, Egypt has turned into a net importer of energy in recent years, as a result of declining production and increasing consumption.

However, Egypt aims to return to an energy exporter after resources were discovered across the country, which has attracted several international firms over the past few years.