Egypt’s gas reserves have increased to 90tn cubic feet of gas per day, up from 60tn cubic feet in 2015, marking a growth of 33.3%, after linking the new gas fields, such as Zohr, Noor, and Atol to production.
The Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El-Mulla, told Daily News Egypt on the sidelines of a symposium of the Canadian-Egyptian Business Council that the total gas reserves increased by about 37tn daily cubic feet.
He explained that the new projects contributed to the self-sufficiency of natural gas, which is one of the most important successes of the strategy.
El-Mulla said that in one year, four major Egyptian gas fields in the Mediterranean were put on the production map, namely Zohr, Atol, Noroos, and Northern Alexandria. The fields’ investments amount to $27.2bn and have a collective production of 6.5bn cubic feet per day.
The Minister of Petroleum said that the value of the foreign partner’s share in the oil and gas fields rose to about $800m, compared to $400m in the last fiscal year, due to fluctuations in oil prices in the world markets.
He added that the sector’s strategy was in three main areas: increasing and diversifying energy supply and demand management, achieving financial sustainability through dealing with debt arrears and reforming the subsidy system and dealing with internal debt.
He referred to improving the management of the petroleum sector, through structural reforms and encouraging private sector investments by supporting legislation such as the Gas Market Regulation Law.
The Minister of Petroleum confirmed that the sector succeeded in overcoming all the crises and challenges it faced during the last period.
Notably, a committee was formed by Prime Ministerial decision, headed by the Minister of Petroleum and includes a number of ministries concerned with the transformation of Egypt into a logistic centre, who follow this national project, and provide it with all the support for its implementation.
Egypt has many elements that enable its transformation into a regional centre for energy trading. Its unique geographic location, which is central to the producing countries that are rich in energy sources and major consuming countries, is an important element that cannot be overlooked, but is not sufficient alone, and we support it by establishing a strong infrastructure in the oil and gas fields.
