CAIRO: Egypt's South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Co on Sunday offered 10 oil and gas exploration blocks in the Red Sea for sale through a tender.

Companies may review technical data and buy data packages related to making bids on the blocks from Sunday, according to a release from the Ministry of Petroleum in local newspapers.

The closing date for bids will be Aug. 1 at noon and the winner will enter a production sharing agreement.

The 10 blocks, Red Sea B1-10, are each just over 3,000 square kilometres.

Egypt, which is now a net exporter of gas, has made a series of big discoveries in recent years, including Zohr, the largest gas field in the Mediterranean, helping to draw back investors that had pulled away after a 2011 uprising led to mounting debt payments.

The country, which said this month that it produces 6.8 billion cubic feet of gas per day, has reached maritime demarcation agreements with several other countries in recent years to push increased oil and gas exploration.

It hopes to leverage its strategic location and well-developed infrastructure to become a key international trading and distribution centre for gas, having spent about $3 billion on annual liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports as recently as 2016.

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk; Writing by Yousef Saba; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle) ((Yousef.Saba@thomsonreuters.com; +201222184730))