Egypt to invest $9bn in oil and gas projects

Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Egypt plans to invest $9 billion in building new oil refining and gas projects, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has said.

Projects will be started in Alexandria, Assiut and Suez, with an estimated investment of $7.5 billion.

These will allow Cairo to maximise value from its extensive natural resources, Egypt Today newspaper reported citing a ministry statement.

An additional investment of $1.4 billion has been allocated for Behaira, Damietta and New Alamein governorates.

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Since the launch of its development strategy in 2016, the ministry has overseen the completion of eight new oil refining projects, worth more than $5 billion. 

Egypt’s natural gas production capacity has more than doubled to over 4.30 million tonnes in financial year 2021/2022.

In February Egypt’s minister of petroleum Tarek El Molla said that the country would launch the first-ever bid for obsolete energy fields.

The minister added that the country is negotiating to increase gas imports to re-export, pointing to cooperation with Cyprus to benefit from the Aphrodite field after being developed.

Egypt’s non-oil private sector activity contracted for the 30th consecutive month in May, but at a slower pace than the previous 15 months, according to S&P Global’s latest survey.