Egypt denies importing gas from Qatar

CAIRO – 28 July 2017: Egypt has no direct relations with Qatar regarding importing natural gas, but does import gas from international tenders and suppliers, stated former spokesperson for the Ministry of Petroleum, Hamdi Abdel-Aziz, on Thursday.

Earlier in 2017, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) managed to secure Egypt’s natural gas needs for 2017 and ensure a large supply for 2018 through global bidding conducted earlier in January, according to Abdel-Aziz.

Egypt’s need for imported natural gas has notably reduced as a result of entering the Taurus and Libras fields in north Alexandria at the end of April with daily energy capacity reaching up to about 700 million cubic feet, Abdel Aziz added.

He noted that EGAS worked with international suppliers to reduce the amount of imported shipments of liquified gas from 12 to ten shipments monthly during summer.

These amounts will be reduced to reach seven shipments starting from October and will gradually be reduced further once the new gas fields start to produce gas.

During the first half of 2018, Egypt’s gas production will nearly reach 6.3 billion cubic feet per day when the ZohrGas Field’s first stage of production begins, with an energy capacity of 1.2 billion cubic feet per day before the end of 2017.

As well as 300 million cubic feet of energy per day will be added to production from Atoll Gas Field during the first quarter of the 2018.

Abdel Aziz disclosed that the development of the wells in the Nawras gas field will make their production exceed 1.2 billion cubic feet per a day. While pointing out that these fields achieve self-sufficiency from natural gas he indicated that the continued reduction of importing gas will result in no importation before the end of next year.