Egypt’s Petroleum Minister Tarek el Molla said Egypt Petroleum Show (EGYPS 2023), now in its sixth edition, has become an important platform for petroleum and gas leaders, influencers and service providers in a record time.
He added that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s attendance of the inauguration of this important event contributes to the success of the conference.
Addressing the opening session of the conference, Molla said the event comes at an important timing in light of the consecutive challenges that affect the entire world.
Egypt was keen to turn these challenges into opportunities to support national economy, he said.
The latest challenges reflected the sound vision of the Egyptian leadership that initiated the establishment of East Mediterranean Gas Forum, he said, stressing that regional cooperation through the forum led to increasing gas exports from Egypt and East Mediterranean countries to Europe.
The petroleum sector achieved many successes last year, Molla said, citing the increase of petroleum exports to 18.2 billion dollars and achieving a surplus in the petroleum balance of trade for the third consecutive year amounting to three billion dollars.
Four international tenders in the excavation domain were launched through “Egypt Upstream Gateway” last year and three other ones will be floated this year, he added.
Molla said an ambitious plan was drafted with international partners to dig more than 300 exploratory wells.
As part of Egypt’s role as an energy hub, the petroleum sector succeeded over the past eight years in developing infrastructure through increasing the number of ports and platforms to receive butane gas carriers and adding 79 depots for crude oil and petroleum products storage.
In the refining domain, eight new projects were carried out, three of them were inaugurated by President Sisi, Molla said.
As part of Decent Life Initiative, natural gas was supplied to more than 200 villages while the petroleum sector managed to maintain the annual rate of natural gas delivery to household at 2.2 million housing units.
The petroleum minister said the number of cars converted to operate on natural gas was increased to about 500,000 cars as well as the number of gas stations that was doubled to reach about 900 stations.
In order to maximize the added value and reduce exports, several petrochemical projects were implemented and efforts are underway to implement other ones, he said.
He stressed that the petroleum sector is moving towards achieving its strategic goals in a way that serves the economic dimension of sustainable development in Egypt without turning our back to our responsibility towards the social and environmental dimensions.
Molla said the petroleum sector has adopted a new unified strategy for social responsibility based on sustainability with the aim of supporting and increasing the contribution of the sector and its partners in community development.
In view of the environmental dimension, the issue of climate change and energy transition came at the top of the petroleum sector’s priorities, he said. Last November, Egypt succeeded in organizing the UN Climate Change Conference COP 27 that was characterized by inclusiveness and the transition from pledges to action.
At the end of his word, the minister said EGYPS is an important platform to exchange ideas and initiatives to boost regional and global integration in the gas and petroleum domains.
