Page 8 - AfrOil Week 47 2021

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

Egypt reports $604mn surplus in

FY2020/2021 hydrocarbon balance

EGYPT EGYPT turned a corner by reporting its first reduce arrears owed to international oil majors,
hydrocarbon balance surplus in a decade in Fis- which dropped from $6.3bn in 2013 to a more
cal Year 2020/2021, which ended in June. modest figure of $845mn as of June 2021. This
The country’s hydrocarbon balance, which has given a major boost to investor confidence,
is calculated as exports minus imports of oil as reflected in the growing investments by exist-
and gas, has been in a deficit for most of the past ing partners and the entry of new oil majors,
decade. However, Egypt managed to rack up a such as the US giants Chevron and ExxonMobil,
modest surplus EGP9.5bn ($604mn) surplus in into the Egyptian market. ™
the past fiscal year, the Ahram newspaper has
reported, citing statements made by Petroleum
Minister Tarek El Molla.
The turnaround stems partly from increased
domestic and international investments in
hydrocarbon exploration and development in
Egypt. A total of 30 new natural gas projects
were implemented in the last fiscal year, attract-
ing EGP520bn worth of investment, or nearly
half of the total sum of EGP1.2 trillion chan-
neled into the hydrocarbons sector.
As a result, Egypt was also able to reverse the
drop in natural gas production. Over the past
decade, output levels have grown by 25% growth
on the figure reported in 2011.
Investors have been particularly encouraged
by the Egyptian government’s sincere efforts to Chevron is one of the oil majors that has entered Egypt (Image: TGS)

POLICY
Algeria ready to meet Europe’s additional

gas requests, energy minister declares

ALGERIA ALGERIAN Energy Minister Mohamed Arkab expected to see the capacity of Medgaz, one of
told Radio Algerie that the country stood ready the two pipelines built to carry Algerian gas
to meet all natural gas requests from European to the Iberian Peninsula, rise to 10.6bn cubic
customers. metres per year by December. Algeria intends to
According to Arkab, the state-run hydro- fulfil all its commitments to supply gas to Spain
carbons firm Sonatrach is fulfilling all its gas and Portugal through the Medgaz pipeline and
commitments presently and is prepared to meet LNG shipments, he said.
any additional requests, in line with plans for Gas prices in Europe have recently jumped
the development of the firm’s business and the more than 15% on concerns that Russian gas
increasing of its output. firm Gazprom will not send enough fuel sup-
Algeria is keen to further enhance its pres- plies this winter. Meanwhile, Algeria’s decision
ence in the European gas market by offering not to renew its transit contract with Morocco
additional quantities, the minister said. He reit- for the Gaz Maghreb-Europe (GME) pipeline-
erated that the North African country was seek- has heightened supply concerns.
ing to raise its gas market share in Europe above Arkab also noted that total gas exports from
the current 30% level of. Algeria reached 30bn cubic metres in the first
Arkab went on to say that Sonatrach nine months of this year, up 94% year on year. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 47 24•November•2021