The petroleum sector achieved many successes in 2022, El-Molla said, citing the increase of petroleum exports to $18.2 billion and achieving a surplus in the petroleum balance of trade for the third consecutive year amounting to $3 billion.

El-Molla’s remarks came on Sunday during the inauguration of the 6th Egypt Petroleum Show (EGYPS 2023), which is held from 13 to 15 February at the Egypt International Exhibitions Center (EIEC) in Cairo, in the presence of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

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.

Egypt has seen an unprecedented leap in its natural gas export revenues, which have increased 13-fold over the past eight years, according to a report issued in September by the Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC).

Egypt’s natural gas and liquified natural gas (LNG) export revenues reached $8 billion in the fiscal year 2021/2022, up from $0.6 billion in 2013/2014, according to the report.

Egypt has quadrupled its exports of LNG and natural gas over the past eight years from 1.9 million tons to 7.2 million tons.

In the same period, Egypt signed 108 agreements with international companies for the excavation of gas and petrol with a minimum investment value of $22 billion.

Egypt’s production reached 69.2 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2021/2022 compared to 41.6 bcm in 2015/2016, a growth rate of 66.3 percent, the report read.

El-Molla said an ambitious plan was drafted with international partners to dig more than 300 new exploratory wells.

In the refining domain, eight new projects were carried out, three of which were inaugurated by President El-Sisi, El-Molla said.

Egypt also has the infrastructure for transporting and handling natural gas with a network of 7,000 km in pipelines, a distribution network of 31,000 km, and 29 gas-treatment plants as well as two LNG facilities – the Idku and Damietta plants.

Since achieving self-sufficiency in natural gas in 2018, Egypt has planned on using its position on Europe’s doorstep to become a major supplier of LNG to the continent – which is transitioning away from other fossil fuels – based on recent huge gas discoveries and production.

As part of the 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 2.2 million housing units, El-Molla said.

The petroleum minister indicated that the number of cars converted to operate on natural gas was increased to about 500,000 cars, while the number of gas stations has been doubled to reach about 900 stations.

In order to maximise the added value and reduce imports, 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.

El-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.

EGYPS: A major international platform

El-Molla said EGYPS 2023 has become an important platform for petroleum and gas leaders, influencers and service providers in a record time.

He added that El-Sisi's attendance of the inauguration of this important event contributes to the success of the conference.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly attended the EGYPS inauguration alongside El-Molla and a number of ministers and top state officials.

Addressing the opening session of the conference, El-Molla said the event comes at an important time in light of the consecutive challenges that affect the entire world.

Egypt was keen to turn these challenges into opportunities to support the 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.

CEOs of oil and natural gas sectors worldwide are taking part in the event alongside a cluster of energy ministers, government representatives, senior EU officials, secretaries of major international energy organisations, and energy business tycoons.

The talks will focus on means of promoting development of the petroleum and natural gas sectors. 

EGYPS 2023 started with a short documentary film on the unprecedented fluctuations the world has witnessed in 2022 and how securing energy resources became an urgent need.

The film highlighted that Egypt managed to realise swift development over the past years, thus becoming a regional energy hub under the leadership of El-Sisi.

The film referred to Egypt's efforts in upgrading the infrastructure and launching major development projects in addition to hosting the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27).

Egypt announced its petroleum sector strategy during COP27's Decarbonisation Day, the film added.

The film stressed that EGYPS 2023 represents a great opportunity to stand on means of overcoming major international economic challenges in light of the current geopolitical conditions, inflation and stagnation challenges and development of current generation of working systems of the energy, natural gas and petroleum sectors.

After the documentary film, the president of the DMG Events and organiser of EGYPS 2023 Christopher Hudson delivered a speech in which he underlined that the exhibition is meant to showcase Egypt's potentials as a strategic partner in the energy domain, thus becoming a major energy hub.

Hudson thanked El-Sisi for his support for the event and welcomed attendants of such international event.

He also thanked El-Molla for his support of the event which is a major international platform.

He noted that there are over 500 exhibitors in the event and 30,000 visitors from 70 countries are expected to attend within the coming three days in order to participate in dialogue and build partnerships at the local, regional and international levels.

Meanwhile, Secretary General of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Haitham Al-Ghais underlined the great attention Egypt gives to the energy, oil and gas industries.

Al-Ghais voiced appreciation and extended his thanks to El-Sisi for sponsoring such important event in the oil industry.

For his part, El-Molla commended El-Sisi's sponsorship of the event which is important in this timing as the world is facing major energy challenges.

He said Egypt capitalised on all its potentials to confront the energy crisis.

Cooperation in energy and climate change sectors

El-Sisi attended a panel discussion, which focused on importance of cooperation in the energy and climate change sectors, held Sunday on the sidelines of the event.

In his speech, El-Sisi said the great effort Egypt exerts along with oil search and excavation firms would be a key decisive factor for the convocation of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum to help lessen the impact of a crisis triggered by a high European demand for oil in the future.

The president said the more gas discoveries made in Egypt, Lebanon, Israel or any other country, the greater contribution this would all help in reducing demand and pressure on oil supplies resulting from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

The president said giant companies operating in the gas field were highly afflicted by the rising demand on oil and energy supplies within the past years that all impacted the flow of investments in the oil and gas domains.

He noted that world oil products' supplies were not enough during the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, forcing a hike in prices, thus necessitating a swift handling of demands for oil and production rates in the future.

The session was moderated by John Defterios, former emerging markets editor and anchor at CNN and professor of dusiness at NYU Abu Dhabi, and was attended by El-Molla and Secretary General of the International Energy Forum (IEF) Joseph McMonigle.

Defterios said 2022 was full of challenges, highlighting problems triggered by oil prices, adding that COP27 shed light on the necessity of achieving sustainability and supporting Africa in obtaining energy.