Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt consumes 80 million tonnes of petroleum products per annum worth $40 billion (EGP 633.20 billion), Egypt’s former petroleum minister has said.
Speaking in an interview on ONTV’s morning show on Wednesday, Osama Kamal noted that Egypt’s production of natural gas has neared 4.5 billion cubic feet, adding that he expects output to reach 5 billion cubic feet by the end of 2017.
The value of Egypt’s production of petroleum products amounts to $25 billion, the ex-minister revealed, noting that the most populous Arab country imports around a third of its petroleum needs worth roughly $13 billion.
The former minister warned of exporting natural gas should Egypt become self-sufficient in the non-renewable energy resource.
Exporting raw materials does not bring in significant added value and Egypt needs all of its petroleum materials to manufacture them into products, Kamal said.
The ministry said in January that it was targeting four new petrochemical projects with investments exceeding $1 billion, which will boost the added value of local raw materials instead of exporting them.
In December, Egypt’s minister of petroleum and mineral resources Tarek El-Molla stated that Egypt would become self-sufficient in terms of natural gas by the end of 2018.
