Egypt keen to regain its leading role to become a regional energy center

CAIRO - 13 June 2019: Egypt is keen to regain its leading role in promoting regional and international cooperation through implementing its national project to become a regional energy center.

Egypt implements the project through three main axes of work, whether internal, political, technical or commercial, according to the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.

The ministry clarified that these include the issuance of legislation supporting investment in the fields of gas and oil, where the law was issued to regulate the activities of the gas market and the establishment of an independent regulatory system.

The ministry pointed out that Egypt has all the assets that qualify it for this role because of its strategic location between resource-rich countries and major consumers, in addition to the necessary infrastructure and facilities from gas liquefaction plants, refineries, storage depots, port berths, oil and gas pipeline network and Suez Canal.

During the ministry's participation in the meeting organized by the French Institute for International Relations on the role of Egypt in the region with regard to the natural gas industry, the ministry said that Egypt has taken effective steps to establish extensive regional cooperation with the natural gas producing countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region and establish partnership with the union in the energy field to optimize the exploitation of all current possibilities and to maximize the economic benefits of the discovered natural gas resources as well as the expected discoveries in the future.

It pointed out that the first forum of the countries of the East Mediterranean Gas, which includes the gas producing countries in this region, was established according to an Egyptian joint initiative with Cyprus and Greece, aiming to support cooperation through regular and continuous dialogue between producing and consuming countries and parties that transport gas.

The forum also targeted boosting coordination between the strategies of Member States to discuss the possibility of developing a sustainable regional gas market to exploit all potential sources of gas in the region and explore new routes for the transfer of natural gas to the world markets at a competitive price.

The ministry also revealed convening its first meeting in Cairo in mid-January.