Le ministre du Pétrole et des Ressources minérales, Tarek El-Molla, a déclaré que quatre appels d’offres internationaux dans le domaine de l’exploitation ont été lancés via « Egypt Upstream Gateway » en 2022 et que trois autres seront lancés cette année.
The oil sector has achieved many successes in 2022, said El-Molla, citing the increase in oil exports to $18.2 billion and the achievement of a surplus in the oil trade balance for the third consecutive year amounting to $3 billion.
El-Molla's remarks came at the opening of the 6th Egypt Petroleum Show in Cairo, in the presence of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi.
As part of Egypt's role as an energy hub, the oil sector has succeeded over the past eight years in developing infrastructure by increasing the number of ports and platforms to receive butane gas carriers and adding 79 depots for the storage of crude oil and oil products.
Egypt has seen an unprecedented jump in natural gas export revenues, which have increased 13-fold over the past eight years, according to a report published in September by the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC).
Egypt's natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export revenues reached $8 billion in fiscal year 2021/2022, up from $0.6 billion in 2013/2014, the report said.
Egypt has quadrupled its LNG and natural gas exports over the past eight years, from 1.9 million tonnes to 7.2 million tonnes.
During the same period, Egypt signed 108 agreements with international companies for oil and gas extraction with a minimum investment value of $22 billion.
Egypt's production reached 69.2 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2021/2022 compared to 41.6 bcm in 2015/2016, a growth rate of 66.3%, the report said.
El-Molla said that an ambitious plan has been drawn up with international partners to drill more than 300 new exploration wells.
In the field of refining, eight new projects have been completed, three of which were inaugurated by President El-Sissi, said El-Molla.
Egypt also has infrastructure for the transport and handling of natural gas with a 7,000 km pipeline network, a 31,000 km distribution network and 29 gas processing plants as well as two LNG facilities (Idku and Damietta plants).
Since achieving self-sufficiency in natural gas in 2018, Egypt has planned to use its position on Europe's doorstep to become a major supplier of LNG to the continent based on recent discoveries and gas production.
Under the Decent Life initiative, natural gas has been supplied to more than 200 villages while the oil sector has managed to maintain the annual natural gas delivery rate at 2.2 million housing units, said El-Molla.
The Oil Minister said that the number of cars converted to run on natural gas has been increased to about 500,000 cars, while the number of filling stations has been doubled to about 900 stations.
To maximise value added and reduce imports, several petrochemical projects have been implemented and efforts are underway to implement others, he said.
He stressed that the oil sector is progressing towards achieving its strategic objectives in a way that serves the economic dimension of sustainable development in Egypt without turning our backs on our responsibility towards the social and environmental dimensions.
El-Molla said that the oil sector has adopted a new unified social responsibility strategy based on sustainability with the aim of supporting and increasing the contribution of the sector and its partners to community development.