Eng. Sameh Fahmy, Egyptian Minister of Petroleum, inaugurated the 4th International Conference and Exhibition for Oil and Gas (Intergas IV), which was attended by Mohamed Bin Dhaen El Hameli, UAE’s Energy Minister and President of OPEC, Sheikh Ali El Sabbah, Kuwaiti Oil Minister, and delegations from 49 states participating in the conference and the accompanying exhibition.
Fahmy stressed in his opening address on the importance of a unified Arab strategy in the domain of energy during the coming phase to cope with the international changes witnessed by energy markets.
He also confirmed the significance of the Middle East region in the oil industry in light of the existing reserves which represent about 75% of the world reserves of oil and gas. The Minister noted that one of the successful models of the Arab cooperation is Sumed project to transfer oil, which involves Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and UAE.
On his part, Al-Hameli declared that petroleum supplies in the market are sufficient and OPEC is prepared to secure global demand needs with Non-OPEC countries. He also appreciated the special relations with Egypt especially in Oil field, and asserted the existence of attracting and promising opportunities for the UAE’s companies to invest in Petroleum Industry in Egypt.
Commenting on oil production, Al-Sabah stated that petroleum market has witnessed proportional balance for over 4 months and that petroleum producing countries are keen to fulfill international demand needs, praising cooperation with Egypt in oil and gas fields and there are Kuwaiti companies which achieved success through their participation in several oil and gas projects.
Fahmy has also pointed out the new initiative of the Petroleum Sector to establish three major complexes to gather, receive, and transfer oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Suez, the Western Desert, and the Mediterranean regions in order to achieve three major objectives to speed up putting discoveries on production and availing the suitable period for that, in addition to savings in capital costs and expenses recovered for the foreign partner, clarifying that the advantages of this project will benefit Egypt in terms of attracting international investments and signing more petroleum agreements contributing to bolstering oil and gas reserves and production.
Victor Krishtenko, Minister of Industry and Energy in Russia, in the speech delivered by the representative of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Energy on his behalf, expressed his government’s keenness to increase and effectuate cooperation with Egypt in oil and gas industry, noting that the Russian companies are currently discussing a group of joint projects with Egypt.
After the opening session, the Ministers inaugurated the accompanying exhibition which included 316 companies from 49 countries, and displayed the recent state-of-the art technologies applied in oil and gas industry.