Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla has received the Regional Director of the World Bank’s (WB) Infrastructure Department in the Middle East and North Africa region Paul Noumba where they discussed how to boost cooperation in natural gas, emissions reduction and natural gas fields.

During the meeting, El Molla highlighted the necessity of the strategic partnership between the petroleum sector and the WB in the different fields, including the initiative to deliver natural gas to households all over Egypt.

Additionally, El Molla mentioned the sector’s projects for emissions reduction which were announced in COP27, underlying the role of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF) in this regard. He also stated the efforts carried out to set a sustainable climate investment in the mining sector, referring to the emission reduction projects underway in this sector.

Moreover, the minister expressed his desire to cooperate with the WB to confront the phenomenon of random exploration by following the best international practices in this regard. For his part, Noumba affirmed the role of Egypt as a regional energy hub and the WB’s support to all the country’s efforts for emissions reduction during the energy transition period in parallel with providing Europe with natural gas to accelerate green hydrogen projects. 

Also, Noumba expressed his appreciation for the EMGF’s role as a successful regional energy organization and its growing international influence, emphasizing his desire to participate in the coming meetings that will be held in Egypt about green hydrogen. 

The meeting also tackled the capability of conducting an agreement on the second phase of the natural gas delivery project in parallel with reducing emissions and they agreed to conduct a workshop to find the best opportunities for establishing emissions reduction projects in the petroleum sector.