Egypt loses 200m cubic feet per day during oil production as a result of gas flaring, chairman of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) Khaled Abdel Badie said Tuesday.
Abdel Badie said a number of projects are being conducted in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), who sponsored a workshop on Tuesday to address problems linked to gas flaring in the country’s petroleum industry.
The EBRD workshop discussed findings of its study on “Gas Flaring Reduction in Egypt”. The study was launched in 2014 to reduce flaring and enhance cooperation with the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, the Egyptian General Petroleum Company (EGPC), Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), and the Ganoub El-Wadi Holding Company (GANOPE).
Abdel Badie said the amount of gas burnt in Egypt does not add up to a significant figure, adding that gas flaring is inevitable during the oil production process.
“EBRD has experience in finding ways to use burned gas in some countries, such as Kazakhstan, Russia, and Iran,” said Abdel Badie. “It is possible to study these experiences so that Egypt can benefit from them and address the issue of gas flaring by possibly using it to generate electricity.”
Regarding the petroleum production process, around 140bn cubic metres of associated petroleum gas (APG) are flared annually throughout the world, according to EBRD.
EBRD said Egypt ranks among the top 20 gas-flaring countries in the world.
The EBRD also said that capturing the gas flared in Egypt would amount to enough to provide 5% of Egypt’s energy needs and save the economy $300m a year.
EBRD director for natural resources Eric Rasmussen said the company has already received $200m to finance projects to reduce flaring in Egypt and is committed to looking into new projects.
Last year, the EBRD signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with EGPC, EGAS, and GANOPE under the auspices of the Ministry of Petroleum to strengthen cooperation to reduce the level of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.
