Egypt hopes to reverse gas output slide

The faster-than-expected decline of gas output in 2015, highlighted by petroleum minister Tarek El-Molla in a recent speech, may be a misleading indicator of where Egypt’s energy sector is heading. The low level of production today and the minister’s muted expectations for production in 2019 have provoked widely varying assessments of whether the country can ever attain self-sufficiency, let alone start exporting again. In the long term, there is a chance that fresh reserves may be found in the prospective but unexplored parts of the deep-water Nile Delta – a western segment of which may be offered in a licensing round by Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas) this year.