CAIRO: “Egypt is a candidate to increase its reserves of natural gas to become one of the biggest producers worldwide,” said Energy Minister Sameh Fahmy in a press conference on Thursday. According to Egypt's official news agency, MENA, Fahmy said there are a number of international reports highlighting the existence of important natural gas reserves in the East Mediterranean, where Egypt shares some gas fields with neighboring countries. The reserves of those fields are estimated at 122 trillion cubic meters. According to Fahmy, Egypt has 78 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, in addition to 228 trillion that international reports say exist in fields in the Nile Delta and offshore across from the North Delta. Fahmy added that there are also reserves in the Western Desert, the Suez Gulf, and Upper Egypt that can allow Egyptian reserves to exceed 300 trillion cubic meters and make it one of the biggest countries in term of production and reserves. Fahmy also underlined that Egypt has been able to modify many petroleum and gas extraction agreements, getting foreign companies who invest in Egypt to assume all coasts of petroleum exploration and excavation work. He noted that many international companies working in Egypt increased their investments in excavation and exploration work in spite of the financial crisis. Fahmy said the increased investment shows confidence in Egypt's capacity, thanks to the existence of many studies assuring that those possibilities exist. He also revealed that British Petroleum is set to invest $9 billion over the next three years in Egypt's oil and gas exploration sector. Egypt is set to host a meeting of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) in March. BM
