Egypt has revised its 2040 renewable energy target to 40% from a previous target of 58%, Oil Minister Karim Badawi said on Sunday, underlining that natural gas will remain a key part of the country’s energy mix for years.
Before hosting the COP27 climate summit in 2022, Egypt pledged to increase renewable energy production to 42% of its energy mix by 2035, and then advanced that goal to 2030. In June 2024, then-Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker announced an ambitious plan to increase this to 58% by 2040, a goal now abandoned.
“This is a message to all of us to work together to increase discoveries and attract more investments through the bids offered for exploration, with the aim of achieving new discoveries in the region, which has more wealth, particularly gas natural,” Badawi said at the opening session of the Mediterranean Energy Conference 2024.
The continued reliance on fossil fuels comes as Egypt works to rebuild trust with foreign oil companies, whose local operations slowed after a foreign currency shortage left the country billions of dollars in arrears.
Since taking office in July, Badawi has met with numerous international energy companies, including Italy’s Eni, which plans to start drilling new wells in Egypt’s largest gas field, Zohr, in early 2025 to boost production. .
Zohr’s gas production peaked at 3.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) in 2019, allowing the country to become a net exporter. But production fell to 1.9 bcf/d in early 2024, forcing Egypt to increase gas imports through a pipeline linking it to Israel, as well as shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to avoid a load shedding plan that dragged on for months.
Egypt also imports high-sulfur fuel oil, with imports soaring to 255,000 barrels per day (bpd) in September, the highest level since at least 2016.
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