The past two decades have witnessed a noteworthy expansion of the Egyptian natural gas market to the point where gas now accounts for more than half of the country’s energy needs, according to British Petroleum’s statistical review 2016.
Not only known for its antiquities and for being an agricultural provider, Egypt was once known for its natural gas exports. The North African Country was exporting around 30% of its natural gas production in 2009 in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF)’s Egypt country profile. However, growing local demand has turned Egypt into a gas importer after years of natural gas boom.
The Egyptian cabinet announced in June the cut of fuel subsidies as a move to reduce the country’s budget deficit. The increase in benzene and diesel prices following the cabinet’s decision led many citizens to look for natural gas as a cheaper alternative of fuel.
Natural gas was the most recently discovered source of fossil fuel in Egypt, and it was left up to the discretion of the government to direct it towards the channels that would best serve the country. Due to the almost non-existent conversion costs, the government chose to use natural gas in power stations.
The signalization of fuel smart cards has been ongoing in Egypt since 2013. Although the project raised an important flag of combat against fuel smuggling and corruption in the system, it has remained on papers without significant progress.
With the fluctuations of global oil prices; the kingdom of Bahrain is trying to make its way out of an economic drop. Although the Bahraini kingdom is working on diversifying its economy from oil and gas since 1990, the kingdom’s deficit is still affected by the changes in the global oil and gas markets. Hence, with the stumbling oil prices, the kingdom had to take a number of measures including the increase of its fuel prices, in 2016.
