The Egyptian minister of petroleum, Sameh Fahmi, was reported in Al-Ahram daily, revealing that over the course of the last 10 months, the local natural gas reserves had increased from 36 trillion cubic meters to 45 trillion cubic meters.
The minister stated, that the local petroleum sector has adopted five strategic goals for the upcoming period. These goals are: to enhance petroleum and natural gas reserves, satisfy domestic petroleum and gas consumption, enrich the treasury’s petroleum returns, provide jobs for the young and to spread the use of developed technologies in the petroleum industry.
Egypt’s petroleum industry accounted for six percent of the country’s GDP during the fiscal year of 1998/1999, and 22.9 percent of its exports in 1999.
Increased gas discoveries have greatly encouraged the substitution of oil for gas products in domestic as well as industrial uses. In 1998, 80 percent of thermal electricity in Egypt was generated from natural gas, compared to 20 percent in 1988.
–(Albawaba-MEBG)
