The Minister of Planning and Economic Development (MPED), Hala Al Saeed, said that EGP 60.6 billion of investments were allocated to upgrade the petroleum and mineral resources sector during fiscal year (FY) 2021/2020, representing 8.

2% of total investments, according to Al Ahram.

Per the statement, the petroleum and mineral resources sector targets a production increase at the current prices by 7.2%; from EGP 547.3 billion in FY 2019/20 to about EGP 586.6 billion in FY 2020/21.

MPED’s development plan aims to secure the country’s needs of petroleum products and to maximize the petroleum sector’s contribution to the national income, as well as transforming Egypt into a regional energy hub. With that being said, the plan aims to launch more international bid rounds leading to new discoveries and making good use of the existing ones. Additionally, the plan aims to increase the refineries’ capacities and develop them to improve their efficiency, as well as diversifying the energy mix, as dependence on oil and gas exceeds 90% of the total energy sources.

Per the report, the FY 2020/21 plan includes a number of programs and projects aimed at meeting the growing demand for petroleum products and providing the needs for the development process.

As for exports, the report states that FY 2020/21 plan targets exporting about 32 million tons of crude oil, gas, petroleum products, and petrochemicals, including exports from international oil companies’ (IOCS) of oil, crude, natural gas, and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Al Saeed added that the petroleum sector managed to implement tangible achievements during the last few years, which allowed Egypt to achieve self sufficiency of natural gas and transform into a regional hub for trading energy.

The minister said that the demarcation agreements that Egypt has signed with Greece and Cyprus as well as settlement of IOCs’ arrears impacted positively for continuous exploration and production operations. She pointed to the new discoveries and the agreements that were signed accordingly, which have resulted in developing the Egyptian reserves of oil, condensates and natural gas in addition to increasing the production capacities of refineries and petrochemical plants.