CAIRO: Egypt's Undersecretary of the Ministry of Petroleum for Investment Affairs Ahmed Ashmawy said that Egypt will jump to 6th globally of countries that possess the natural gas reserves, citing an American report. Egypt is currently has the 16th largest natural gas reserve. Ashmawy added at a meeting attended by members of the Egyptian-European Council and ambassadors of most European Union countries to Egypt that a report issued by the United States Geological Survey, has suggested the existence of reserves of oil and gas in Egypt's territorial waters off the Mediterranean coast amounting to approximately 223 trillion cubic feet of gas and 8 billion barrels of oil. He said the report nominated regions of the international waters of Egypt and the Gulf of Mexico to form the largest gas reserve areas in the world, respectively. Ashmawy called on relevant ministries in Egypt “to identify their expected needs from the gas and petroleum products to meet the increased industrial activities, particularly factories and investments for energy-intensive work such as cement factories and steel, fertilizer and power plants to ease the development plans and strategies for research and exploration and exploitation in the light of those needs, so that the needs don't emerge abruptly.” For his part, Abdullah Ghorab, President of the General Authority for Petroleum, said that the authority would “be guided by the US report in the launch of the new exploration in the area, to be offering more enticing and attractive to international companies concerned.” The ministry of petroleum told Bikya Masr on Wednesday that if the new findings are “anywhere near these levels, Egypt will be able to position itself as an investment market where international companies will want to come in and develop the area.” However, the ministry added that caution must be undertaken to ensure that all “avenues of study can be completed before making rash decisions or saying one thing that turns out false.” BM
