Egypt's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla has announced that the country is progressing on the path of transformation into a regional centre for energy trade and circulation. El Molla also said that in recent years, Egypt has managed to establish international and regional partnerships that serve this goal. This has been with a range of partners, whether countries in the Eastern Mediterranean, or the US and the European Union (EU). The minister's remarks came during his participation in the activities of the CERAWeek conference, the most important international event in the energy field. This year's conference is being held virtually from 1-5 March in the United States due to the precautionary measures. He noted that Egypt took the initiative in cooperation with these countries and entities to establish the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum. The entity serves as an umbrella for effective cooperation between the countries in the region in achieving the maximum economic benefit from natural gas resources, and exporting it to Europe. He added that Egypt is continuing to create an environment that supports its transformation into a regional energy centre. Among the most important of these steps is restarting the Damietta plant for liquefying and exporting natural gas after an eight-year hiatus. It also includes developing the infrastructure for oil and gas activities, carrying out expansions in ports and oil and gas transmission pipelines, approving new laws and legislation, and establishing the first agency to regulate the natural gas market. El Molla highlighted Egypt's successful model of transforming from a gas importer to a self-sufficient and exporting country in 2018. This followed the country's success in developing a number of discoveries in the Mediterranean Sea region, foremost of which is the giant Zohr field. He also touched on the state's efforts to expand the use of clean energy, as it seeks to achieve diversity in clean energy sources by 2025. It falls in line with the development of Egypt's energy strategy. As part of this, there is a vision to expand nationwide reliance on solar and wind energy, to ensure that 40% of the country's electricity needs is produced through such renewable sources by 2030.
