Zohr production won’t stop commercial gas imports: Min.

CAIRO – 20 February 2018: Minister of Petroleum Tarek al-Molla said in a TV statement that the production of Egypt's new giant field, Zohr, will not stop existing commercial contracts to sell and purchase natural gas.

Molla added to DMC TV channel that a recently-approved law encourages the private sector and global companies to operate in Egypt.

The Egyptian Parliament passed a new law to regulate the activities of the gas market; the law will help attract the private sector to invest in storing and selling natural gas directly to consumers.

This statement came after the announcement of importing around 64 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan reservoirs.

Delek Drilling, one of the two companies leading gas projects in the reservoirs, said on Monday that the private Company Dolphinus will import gas from their reservoirs for over a decade for $15 billion.

The agreement stipulates that the supply will continue until 2030 or until the 64 billion cubic meters have been fulfilled, whichever is sooner.

Spokesman of the Ministry of Petroleum Hamdy Abdel Aziz said that Egypt is moving forward to implement its strategy to become a regional center for the trade and circulation of gas.

Abdel Aziz added that the government took steps to liberalize the gas market in Egypt and sat a framework that allows the private sector companies to trade in gas within the requirements and approvals of the regulatory department for gas market activities.

The spokesman clarified that the Ministry of Petroleum is not involved in the private sector agreements, confirming that any requests for licenses will be examined through the applicable regulations.

Egypt is expected to stop importing liquefied gas by June 2018, after the production of its giant Zohr gas field began by the end of 2017; Zohr contains about 850 billion cubic meters (30 trillion cubic feet) of gas.

In addition to Zohr, Egypt accomplished three other gas production projects which are 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 a day.

Deputy Chairman of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) for production and fields’ development Mohamed Abdel Azim said earlier that Egypt’s natural gas production will reach some six billion cubic feet a day by the end of fiscal year 2017/18.

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.