Egypt's Petroleum Ministry plans to increase its oil export revenues to $8.5 billion at the end of the 2019/2020 financial year from $7.7 billion during the financial year 2018/2019. Senior government sources told Daily News Egypt that the total quantities targeted for exports of crude oil, gas, petroleum products, and petrochemicals amount to 17.7 million tonnes. They added that the value of exports includes the foreign partner's share of crude oil by calculating the average price of the Gulf of Suez crude oil at $55 per barrel due to the lower prices of crude oil and petroleum products. The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) has started to increase the amount of natural gas exported through the Idku liquefaction plant to about 1bn cubic feet per day (scf/day), compared to 300m scf/day last month. A source in the oil sector said that the quantities of gas exported through Idku increased with the stability of gas prices in international markets after facing a strong decline in importer bids due to the increase in supply during the last period. He pointed out that Egypt's total exports of natural gas rose to 1.29 billion scf/day during the current financial year, which contributes to increasing state treasury revenues from petroleum exports. The source added that Egypt's production of natural gas rose to 7 billion scf/day during the current financial year from around 6.5 billion scf/day during the last financial year. He said the highest concentration of crude oil is exported to the world markets through Sumed company's warehouses for its high price and the lack of Egyptian factories needed to import it. According to government sources, investment in the oil and natural gas sector in the current financial year, was estimated at $10.6 billion, up 15 percent from the previous financial year. The sources said the foreign partners' investments account for the largest share by about $10 billion, equivalent to 94.3 percent of total investments in the oil sector during the financial year 2019/2020. The source added that the investments of public sector companies and authorities amounted to $606 million during the current financial year, which represents about 5.7 percent of total investments in oil and natural gas. Source: daily news
