Tarek El Molla, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Egypt said his country plans to invest $1.8 billion in offshore gas exploration projects in the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile Delta.
The programme, which involves major international companies, including Eni, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and BP, aims to drill 35 exploratory gas wells until July 2025, with 21 planned for the 2023/2024 fiscal year and 14 for the 2024/2025 fiscal year.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 8th OPEC International Seminar in Vienna, Austria, El Molla said that Egypt is developing several exploration fields in the Mediterranean Sea, Nile Delta and Western Desert to enhance the country’s production capacity.
He stressed that the Egyptian petroleum sector and its international partners have been busy exploring new oil and gas resources over the past five years, discovering 284 new fields, including 217 oil wells and 67 gas wells.
These new fields have added 1.32 billion barrels of oil equivalent to the country’s reserves, the minister of petroleum said.
El Molla highlighted that Egypt’s oil and gas production covers most of the country’s energy demand while noting that fossil fuels account for 93 per cent of its energy sources and 75 per cent is allocated towards local consumption while the remainder is imported.
“The Egyptian government has decided to speed up its transition to clean energy in the electricity sector so that renewable energy capacity should contribute 42% of power capacity by 2035,” said El Molla.
On the oil market outlook for the next year, the minister said that OPEC adopts decisions that are “responsive to market changes and supply-demand dynamics,” expecting oil prices to range between $70-80 over the coming period.
