Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla has announced that Egypt’s production of petroleum products increased by 30% during the period from 2014 to 2020 as a result of the Ministry of Petroleum’s strategy to encourage research and exploration and to achieve a mixture of new, renewable, and conventional energy.
He added that the ministry plans to reduce the use of carbon by interacting with the initiatives of global partners as well as cooperating with the private sector and international companies to move towards the production of green hydrogen, coinciding with Egypt’s hosting of the UN’s Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP 27) in Sharm El-Sheikh.
This came during his speech at the American Chamber of Commerce forum on Monday — in the presence of a number of ministers — to prepare for the COP 27 under the title ‘Building Momentum to COP27 of the United Nations: Enhancing Public-Private Cooperation on the Climate Challenge.’
El-Molla added that the ministry is also increasing reliance on environmentally friendly energy, and for this, a presidential initiative was launched to increase reliance on natural gas, which has witnessed a significant increase as a clean and environmentally friendly fuel in homes and cars and has witnessed great demand during the past years.
He pointed out that Egypt is working, through the national strategy to confront climate change and reduce emissions by 2050, on many distinguished initiatives that support the process of reducing emissions in the energy field by expanding the uses of natural gas as a fuel and continuing its important role as a low-emissions energy source during the transition period, as well as energy efficiency improvement projects.
He also referred to the existing cooperation with countries and international companies with the aim of exchanging views and reaching plans that would contribute to reducing carbon emissions by relying on green hydrogen, but the technology is still expensive, and the market is not sufficiently ready for it.
Furthermore, he touched on the role of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum, which Egypt pioneered in its establishment three years ago, noting that the forum recently launched two initiatives to use liquefied gas as fuel for ships and use natural gas as part of plans to reduce emissions.
