The Egyptian oil and gas sector has followed an integrated reform strategy throughout the past four years, which paved the way for many unprecedented milestones, the Ministry of Petroleum said in a report cited by Al Ahram Gate.
During the past few years, the ministry launched two mega projects to collect geological and physical data from the territorial waters of the Egyptian Red Sea and Upper Egypt with investments exceeding $750 million, adding these two areas to the Egyptian exploration map.
Moreover, Egypt announced the biggest exploration and production (E&P) bid round in 27 concessions in the Mediterranean Sea, Gulf of Suez and Western Desert.
Egypt further issued the gas market regulating law, giving more flexibility to the natural gas market, while securing gas to consumers in the local market and boosting economy. The country established the natural gas market regulatory authority, chose its head and issued its executive regulations.
The ministry succeeded in increasing oil and natural gas production and reserves through intensifying E&P activities, raising natural gas reserves by around eight times from 4.6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) during the period from 2010/11 and 2013/14 to reach 70 Tcf between 2014/15 and 2017/18.
The Egyptian ministry paid $1.2 billion of its arrears to international oil companies (IOCs) by the end of June 2018.
Egypt conducted around 24 projects to develop gas fields, with investments reaching around $12.2 billion and production rates of 5 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) of natural gas and 26,600 barrels per day (b/d) of condensates.
Additionally, Zohr natural gas field’s production has been linked to the national gas grid at an amount of 2 bcf/d of natural gas.
The ministry conducted three projects with total investments of $150 million to boost the efficiency of refineries. It is currently conducting seven new projects with total investments of $8.4 billion to develop refineries during the upcoming four years. The projects will contribute to boosting the country’s refining capacity to 41 million tons per year upon completion. Moreover, the ministry will be able to cover 90% of the local market’s petroleum products demands.
Egypt started operating the newest storage and trade warehouse for petroleum products, which was established by Mist Petroleum Company in Badr City with a storage capacity of 30 million liters of gasoline and diesel.
Moreover, the country started operational trials of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving port and its facilities that belong to the Arab Petroleum Pipelines Company (SUMED) in Ain Sokhna Port on the Red Sea, with total investments estimated at $415 million in the first phase for receiving a regasification unit for petroleum products and butane carriers, as well as establishing a number of storage warehouses for mazut and diesel.
The ministry has started taking steps to establish the petrochemicals and refining complexes in Suez Canal and Alamien City.
In addition, the ministry started operational trials for the naphtha repair project in Alexandria National Refine & Petrochemical (ANRPC) to maximize high-octane gasoline production and contribute to covering a part of the growing local market’s demands.
The ministry also took fast steps to complete Mostorod refinery project with investments of around $3.7 billion.
Egypt further started establishing a poly-butadiene factory with investments of $10 million at the Egyptian Ethylene and Derivatives Company (Ethydco).
The Ministry of Petroleum successfully delivered natural gas to around 600,000 households in 2017/18, including households in 27 cities, villages and new areas, boosting the number of total households connected to the natural gas grid to 9.4 million since the start of its activites in 1981.
With the integrated strategy, the ministry aims to turn Egypt into an oil and gas regional hub.
