Egypt’s natural gas consumption hits 5.97bn cubic feet/day in FY2019

Egypt’s consumption of natural gas  recorded around 5.97 billion cubic feet per day during the financial year 2018/2019, up from 5.75 billion cubic feet per day during the financial year 2017/2018, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co. (EGAS) reported on Wednesday.

The report revealed that electricity plants consumed 62.3 percent of Egypt’s natural gas needs, equivalent to about 3.72 billion cubic feet per day, aside from the amount of diesel it received daily, the report said.

While the country’s industrial sector accounted for the largest share of consumption after electricity, consuming about 1.345 billion cubic feet per day, accounting for 22.5 percent of the total consumption during the financial year 2018/2019.

The report pointed out that the petroleum sector accounted for 10.1 percent of the total domestic consumption, while households and cars consumed 304.8 million cubic feet per day of natural gas, accounting for about 5.1 percent.

Egypt’s consumption rate is constantly growing, on the back of the industrial development, urban development, and conversion of vehicles to run on natural gas.

Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum reduced the total production of natural gas to about 6 billion cubic feet per day during the current financial year instead of 7 billion cubic feet per day currently produced, due to the decline in both domestic consumption and exports.

A source at the Ministry of Petroleum told Daily News Egypt earlier that a surplus of natural gas production has been achieved in the different concession areas, estimated at 1 billion cubic feet per day, as power plants consumption declined.

He pointed out that the consumption of power plants decreased to about 3.7 billion cubic feet per day, compared to 4.5 billion cubic feet per day during last summer, due to lower temperatures, which increased the efficiency of production plants and reduced electricity consumption.

He pointed out that the new projects have been linked to production such as Zohr, Nooros, North Alexandria, and Baltim Southwest, and had contributed to the rise of Egypt’s gas production at unprecedented rates.

 The source added that Egypt’s natural gas production is expected to increase to 7.5 billion cubic feet per day during the financial year 2019/2020.

Source: Daily News