Egypt to achieve self-sufficiency in petroleum products by 2023; says minister

Egypt will be achieving self-sufficiency in petroleum products – gasoline and diesel – in 2023, after the success in achieving self-sufficiency natural gas in 2018, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek al-Molla said on Sunday.

Egypt will not need to import liquid fuel by 2023, he added.

He added that prices set for gas selling locally is lower than that of exports underlining that Egypt is currently a liquidation hub for regional gas.

Foreign investments in the petroleum sector increased by 5.4 percent to $7.8 billion in the financial year 2019/2020, compared to $7.4 billion in 2014/2015. Local investments in the sector also rose by 90.9 percent to 12.6 billion Egyptian pounds in the 2019/2020, compared to 6.6 billion pounds in 2014/2015.

The value of exports of petroleum products grew 95 percent to record $3.9 billion in 2019/2020, compared to $2 billion in 2014/2015, while imports decreased 53.3 percent to $4.3 billion in 2019/2020 from $9.2 billion in 2014/2015.

In addition, domestic consumption of natural gas went up 27.7 percent to 60 billion cubic metres in 2019/2020 compared to 47 billion cubic metres in 2014/2015. Domestic consumption of petroleum products dropped 27.6 percent to 27.5 million tonnes in 2019/2020 compared to 38 million tonnes in 2014/2015.