Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla has revealed his country’s ambitious $1.8 billion plan to drill new gas wells in the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile Delta.
Speaking to Emirates News Agency (WAM) during the OPEC seminar in Vienna, El Molla said the programme involves major international companies (Eni, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and BP), aims to drill 35 exploration wells within two years – 21 in the current 2023/2024 financial year and 14 in the next financial year.
El Molla added that the Egyptian petroleum sector and its international partners have been busy exploring new oil and gas resources over the past five years, during which they discovered 284 new fields, including 217 oil wells and 67 gas wells. These new fields have added 1.32 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) to the country’s reserves.
“The Egyptian government has decided to speed up its transition to clean energy in the electricity sector so that renewable energy capacity should contribute 42 percent of power capacity by 2035,” El Molla added, stating that fossil fuels account for 93 percent of primary energy sources in the country at the moment.
The minister expects oil prices to range between $70-80 over the coming period, and added: “OPEC adopts decisions that are responsive to market changes and supply-demand dynamics.”
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