Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla stated that the current period requires everyone to join hands to achieve the hopes and aspirations of the people, stability and development, the ministry said in a statement.

This came in his opening speech to the Sixth Al-Ahram Energy Conference entitled (Securing Energy Sources… Global Challenges and the Egyptian Experience), which was delivered on his behalf by Magdy Galal, Chairman of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), in the presence of a group of oil sector leaders and heads of oil and gas companies. 

El Molla explained that energy security is an important and vital matter, which reflects the importance of efforts to provide an attractive investment climate to increase the attractiveness of the Egyptian oil and gas industry in front of international companies to attract many investments that contribute to the rapid rotation of the wheel of research and exploration in various land and sea regions of Egypt and to accelerate the pace of business, developing the discovered fields, pointing to the signing of 108 agreements to search for oil and gas with international companies, with investments of a minimum of $22 billion over the last seven years.

The minister pointed out that natural gas is one of the most important natural resources and energy sources in which there is growing interest in the world as a clean fuel that meets the growing energy needs needed to support economic and social development plans and contributes to preserving the environment to achieve a balance between the energy system, development and the environment.

El Molla explained that during the past seven years, 27 projects were implemented to develop gas fields with investments estimated at about $21 billion, and the average production of Egypt reached 6.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day (bcf/d). The discovery of the giant Zohr field and putting it into production in a record time shattered all international rates, which left a great impact on meeting the needs of the local market. The interest of the international gas industry was in the Mediterranean region, where the Zohr field is clear evidence that the Mediterranean region is still rich in many resources.

Moreover, El Molla said that within the framework of the state’s policy to achieve social justice and provide distinguished service to all citizens, an unprecedented record has been achieved in the national project to deliver gas to homes under the auspices of the President of the Republic, as the delivery rates were increased to about 1.2 million customers annually during the fiscal year 2021/2022, with priority given to villages and cities that gas had not reached before, bringing the total units to which gas was delivered to 14 million units.

He added that the project of converting cars to run on natural gas has been expanded to reach 477,000 cars, and the number of conversion centers has been increased to 126, as well as the number of gas stations for cars to reach 862 stations nationwide, in light of the policies of maximizing added value and reducing the subsidy bill, as well as preserving the environment, and working to complete the plan to increase the number of converted cars and the spread of gas supply stations.