Egypt to sign agreement with EU in oil, electricity fields

CAIRO – 17 April 2018: Egypt will sign an agreement with the European Union next week in the fields of oil, petroleum and electricity during the visit of the European Union commissioner for energy affairs of Egypt, Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla said on Tuesday.

Molla added that this agreement comes within the framework of Egypt's efforts to become a major energy center in the region.

The objective of transforming Egypt into a regional center of gas and oil is an integral part of the oil sector development and modernization project, which aims to reveal the full potential of the sector by 2021 as a basic engine for sustainable development and a model for modern Egypt, the minister said.

Egypt is expected to stop importing liquefied gas by June 2018, after the production of its giant Zohr gas field began at the end of 2017.

In 2015, the Italian energy company Eni discovered the Zohr gas field in the Shorouk concession, approximately 190 kilometers north of Port Said in an area of 100 square meters (39 square miles) and at a depth of 1,450 meters (4,760 feet).

The total gas in place at the Zohr gas field is around 850 billion cubic meters (30 trillion cubic feet).

In addition to Zohr, Egypt accomplished three other gas production projects: Torres and Libra, Atoll, and Norse.

These four projects added 1.6 billion cubic feet of gas per day to raise Egypt’s daily production to 5.5 billion cubic feet per day.

The country's total natural gas consumption is about 6 billion cubic feet per day, of which roughly 65 percent goes to the electricity sector.

The new discoveries are expected to turn Egypt into a net exporter of natural gas, as the country is expected to halt gas imports by mid-2018.