Egyptian natural gas exports surged to a record 8 million tons in 2022, compared to about 7 million tons in the previous year, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said in a statement about 2022 achievements and milestones.
The value of natural gas exported during the year amounted to around $8.4 billion, compared to about $3.5 billion in 2021, an increase of 171% over 2021, due to the increase in liquified natural gas (LNG) export prices globally.
Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla commented on the 2022 achievement stating that the petroleum sector doubled its efforts during 2022 in order to increase production and accelerate the development and modernization of infrastructure and raise its efficiency.
The ministry has taken it upon itself to modernize the methods of attracting foreign investments to search for oil and gas in Egypt and follow the best international practices, which reflected positively on attracting new major companies to work in Egypt and strengthening the investments of existing international companies, as these investments are the cornerstone of intensifying research and exploration activities to discover more oil and gas reserves and increased production, El Molla noted.
This comes as the total production of petroleum wealth during 2022 reached around 79.5 million tons, including 27.8 million tons of crude oil and condensate, around 50.6 million tons of natural gas, and 1.1 million tons of butane, in addition to butane produced from refining and manufacturing refineries.
On December 26, 2022, the Ministry announced a new global bid to search for natural gas and crude oil in 12 areas in the Mediterranean and the Nile Delta, including six offshore and six onshore areas. The bid is the third to be launched using the latest digital methods through the Egypt Upstream Gateway (EUG), which was launched by the ministry in early 2021.
EUG represented a new approach aimed at developing all its activities to attract investments for research and exploration projects by applying the latest global methods and technologies in issuing bids for investors and international companies as well as facilitating and digitizing procedures in support of speedy investment decision-making.
