As part of Al-Ahram Energy Conference, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi has opened a panel discussion under the title “The role of the petroleum sector in achieving the goals of energy transition and sustainable development.”
The session was moderated by Ahmed Osama, Strategy and Technical Affairs Unit Head, Technical Office, Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MoPMR), and included Business Development General Manager at Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM), Medhat Shaaban, EGPC ‘s CEO Assistant for Corporate Social Responsibility, and Yasmine Naguib and Fatma Ibrahim, Heads of Social Responsibility at MoPMR.
At the start of the session, Osama emphasized that the energy sector’s priority is facilitating the transition to low-carbon energy systems and reducing carbon emissions across the entire energy value chain.
He pointed out that the main concern of those in charge of the energy sectors is to deal efficiently with the triple dilemma, which is securing energy supplies for people and economic growth, making them available at reasonable prices and in an environmentally sustainable manner at the same time.
Osama added that this transition requires working in parallel to develop all sources of energy and moving forward develop renewable energy sources in parallel with continuing to develop traditional fuel sources, especially natural gas which is the lowest carbon emissions.
Wael stated that ECHEM is currently implementing nine new projects as part of the national plan for the petrochemical industry, aiming to maximize added value and increase production by 5.7 million tons of economically and environmentally beneficial products. This will contribute to nearly doubling the current production of petrochemical products from 4 million tons to approximately 10 million tons by 2030. He added that five of these projects are green initiatives, which will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5 million tons annually.
For her part, Naguib explained that the MoPMR launched a new strategy for social responsibility in 2022 with the aim of unifying efforts to implement influential projects that serve local communities in various governorates instead of individual donations from oil companies.
This new strategy serves important areas such as education, training, economic development, health, gender equality, environmental protection, and participation in presidential initiatives such as the Haya Karima initiative, she added. Naguib noted that they are working on selecting the most needed areas to be at the forefront of the priorities to expedite the implementation of projects.
Additionally, Shaaban reviewed the working system for establishing social projects by the MoPMR, giving examples of the most important and largest projects submitted by the petroleum sector, such as the Critical Care and Emergency Hospital project in Assiut.
For her part, Ibrahim highlighted successful social projects undertaken by the petroleum sector in education and environmental protection, showcasing the success story of the Zohr Field School for Applied Technology in Port Said. She noted that the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MoPMR) has implemented around 200 projects within just two years of launching its new strategy, with ongoing efforts across 24 governorates. Ibrahim added that the ministry aims to further increase the number of these projects in the coming years.
