CAIRO: An Egyptian paper submitted to the 6th Ministerial Conference of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Qatar this month, addressing international gas industry projections on the short term pointed out that the global growth in demand for gas is expected to reach 3.7 percent annually till 2010 which represents 24 percent of the total global consumption of primary energy. The Egyptian paper added that gas will remain one of the main sources of energy that meet the increasing needs in the near future, pointing out that the member states in the GECF own 75 percent of the global gas reserves while their share in the global production reach 45 percent along with 26 percent of the total global consumption. It predicting that the industrial member states of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to continue being a net importer of gas. On the other hand, it is predicted that the non-OECD in Africa, Asia, and Europe will become a net exporter of gas. The Egyptian energy sector, particularly in the field of natural gas is experiencing a boom as could be seen by massive investments and the continued interest by a number of international oil and gas giants. Eng. Sameh Fahmy, Minister of Petroleum, addressing the Offshore Mediterranean Conference "OMC 2007 , last month in Doha, Qatar said Egypt s proven reserves of natural gas has reached 69.5 trillion cubic feet (TCF) along, and that natural gas production capacity has increased by an annual rate of 10 percent for the past five years. Multibillion dollar investments by international oil giants in the gas sector, pushed production, and are doubling it to more than 5 billion standard cubic feet per day. Economic growth, whoever, has coincided with rising domestic demand for gas, putting a huge burden on the Egyptian economy as energy subsidies have swelled from $220 million to nearly $8 billion. Seventy trillion of Egypt s estimated 100-120 TCF of gas reserves lie in deep water, which would rank Egypt second in the world in terms of potential deep water gas reserves. According to the Energy Information Administration, Egypt s proven natural gas reserves have gone from 36 TCF in 1998-99 to 67 in 2004-05, the third largest in Africa behind Algeria and Nigeria. Egypt is also the sixth largest liquefied natural gas exporter in the world. Gas production now exceeds crude output, which has declined over the past decade since its peak year in 1996, from an average of 921,667 barrel per day (b/d) to 641,000 b/d for the first 11 months of 2006. Egypt exported $10.6 billion of oil, gas and petrochemicals in 2006. In January, Minister of Oil announced that the world s second biggest oil firm BP had discovered more than one trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Mediterranean. He said the discovery was made 668 meters below sea level north of Alexandria by BP Egypt and is equivalent to half of Egypt s annual gas consumption. BP, the single largest foreign investor in Egypt produces nearly 40 percent of the country s oil and gas production. According to the ministry of petroleum, the oil refining and petrochemical sector, meanwhile, is eying around $500 million in investments in six major projects Gamasa Port Said, Suez, Alexandria, and Upper Egypt. The latest "Egypt Oil & Gas Report from Business Monitor International forecasts that the Egypt will account for 5.73 percent of Middle East and North Africa regional oil demand by 2010, while providing just 1.57 percent of supply.
