The Ministry of Petroleum plans to implement 11 projects to develop gas fields in cooperation with foreign partners. Investments in these projects are expected to total $17.5bn. They aim to offset the natural decay rate in the productivity of fields and increase production rates. A source at the Ministry of Petroleum told Daily News Egypt that the projects are expected to produce 1.9 billion feet of gas per day and 50,000 barrels of condensate. The source added that the ministry is in negotiations with foreign partners to speed up the implementation of projects to offset the natural decay rate and to achieve self-sufficiency of gas in Egypt by the end of 2019. The source noted that the petroleum sector has successfully boosted gas production and countered the natural decay of gas fields after implementing $1.5bn worth of projects, whilst maintaining crude oil production rates over the past years. He explained that 12 projects are underway with projected investments totalling $33bn until 2019. These projects, he said, will add 5.5-6.2bn cubic feet of gas and 28,500 barrels of condensate per day. In addition, the source said that the government is speeding up gas expedition programmes, which include three projects—Zohr, North Alexandria, and Noras—with investments of over $27.7bn and projected production of 5.1bn cubic feet of gas per day. Egypt has increased its import of natural gas to secure the needs of the local market in the summer period to avoid fuel shortages in factories. Imports have been previously reduced to 900m cubic feet of gas per day down from 950m cubic feet of gas per day. The importing of gas is carried out through two gasification vessels in Ain Sokhna port (800m cubic feet per day) and the gasification vessel at the Jordanian port of Aqaba (100m cubic feet per day). The source said that the third gasification vessel tender that was posed in July has been cancelled. He added that the re-evaluation of natural gas projects that will be connected to the national network of gas pipelines has proved that the market does not need more gas in the coming year.
