Thanks to the boom in natural gas discoveries during the last decade, the East Mediterranean region has imprinted its foothold as a natural gas key player. These discoveries have contributed greatly to boosting the region’s potential reserves as well as intensifying its ability to meet the growing domestic demand and achieve a surplus for export.
European dependence on gas imports is only set to increase. Between 2007 and 2017, European natural gas production declined by 39.4%. Although European gas consumption is set to remain almost flat in the coming years, domestic production is expected to fall at an average rate of 3.5% per year.
Fossil fuel subsidy reform (FFSR) is the missing piece of the climate change puzzle. The elimination of fossil fuels subsidies is believed by environmental experts to highly contribute to the goal of the Paris agreement, which builds upon the United Nations Framework Convention. The agreement aims to combat climate change by preventing the average global temperature from rising above 2 degrees Celsius from that of pre-industrial levels and limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. It is estimated that FFSR could lead to carbon emission reductions equivalent to a quarter of the combined effort currently proposed by countries as part of the Paris Agreement.
Setting a robust national fuel price could be the first step taken towards a more sustainable future, however, there's a multi-billion-dollar elephant in the room.
Many developing countries around the world subsidize fuel products to sidestep local impact of fluctuating global oil prices. However, on a macroeconomic level, subsidies by default tend to have a taxing impact on the national budget. As a way out of that conundrum, some developing countries have changed their direction to an automatic fuel pricing indexation mechanism, which allows them to reflect fluctuations in global fuel prices domestically.
The number of electric and natural gas vehicles is growing rapidly with increased government support and private sector investments reflecting major developments in the energy and transportation industries.
The oil and gas downstream sector has no less importance and effect on developing the countries’ economy than the upstream and midstream sectors. Globally, 2017 proved to be a successful year for the downstream sector in which products demand and refinery margins improved and the global market was under attempts for rebalancing. In fact, oil demand grew by 1.7%, reaching 97 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2017, having such an acceleration in the oil demand managed to support developing the downstream sector. Moreover, the increasing oil demand came in line with pushing the global economic wheel which was reflected in the growing consumption of oil products in both the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and non-OECD countries, according to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Annual Statistical Bulletin 2018.
As Egypt paves its way to achieve natural gas self-sufficiency, could there possibly be another shortcut to secure the country’s downstream activities? One might think it is not necessary to explore another alternative with the booming natural gas discoveries. However, a plan B could be the safest bet to offer a myriad of possibilities for the petrochemical industry.
A pipeline could help Libya sustain its oil exports through Egyptian infrastructure, and provides Egypt with the needed crude for its upgraded and expanded refineries.
Joint ventures (JVs) can often be a conundrum, with complicated structures and shared management teams. However, with key human resource (HR) managers, more companies opt for collaboration to modernize their business landscapes. Find out here the best HR practices that optimize JV excellence.
