Karim Badawi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, met with Sayed Selim, Executive Managing Director of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), and senior executives to review the company’s performance, work plans, and the key challenges facing the sector.

During the meeting, Selim and the EGAS leaders outlined the company’s strategy to address challenges affecting natural gas exploration, development, and production. Discussions focused on accelerating field development, ensuring projects remain on schedule, increasing exploration activity, and attracting additional investment in upstream oil and gas operations.

Badawi stressed that increasing oil and gas production and attracting further investment require the sector to remain flexible in responding to evolving global market conditions.

He noted the importance of taking into account changes in exploration and development costs and project economics while maintaining a balance between offering competitive investment incentives to partners and maximizing economic returns for the state through mutually beneficial strategic partnerships.

The ultimate objective is to strengthen domestic oil and gas production, reduce reliance on imports, and lower the country’s import bill and its burden on the state budget, as Badawi noted.

Highlighting efforts to fully settle outstanding dues owed to foreign partners, Badawi said that it has helped restore investor confidence and increased the interest of international energy companies in expanding exploration, field development, and production activities in Egypt.

The government fully settled in Early June its outstanding arrears to foreign oil and gas companies. Back in June 2024, they stood at about $6.1 billion, a burden that eroded investor trust and constrained exploration and production.

Founded in August 200, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) serves as the state entity mandated to manage and regulate Egypt’s natural gas resources. Directly and through its network of 38 subsidiaries and affiliates, EGAS operates across the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors to expand the domestic natural gas industry.