Developing a newly-discovered Egyptian natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea to totally meet domestic demand could almost double the country’s production by 2018, an economic research center has said.
Italian petroleum giant ENI said a week ago it made the biggest natural gas discovery in the world, finding 20 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves at the Zohr field. It said the finding could cover Egypt's demand for decades to come.
If all of the extracted gas is consumed domestically for households, electricity plants and industrial use, Egypt’s gas production will almost double in 2018, said a report by the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies. It said in that case, Egypt will add an average 2,8 billion cubic feet daily.
Such a boom will make Egypt “ able to reduce significantly the expected daily deficit of 3 billion cubic feet of natural gas in 2018”, said the report, adding that it will also help address the current energy bill deficit of LE1,7 billion and ensure growth rates of 6 percent by fiscal year 2018\2019.
But if the government decides to export part of the extracted gas, it will, then, resort to diversifying energy resources for domestic demand besides gas. “Egypt’s electricity mix includes imported electricity, coal used mainly by heavy industries and natural gas used by households and renewable energy sources”, the report explains.
That, the center said that exporting 29 percent of the extracted gas while reserving the rest for domestic demand would regain Egypt its position as “a net gas exporter”, “strengthen the Egyptian pound” and increase international reserves on the long run.
