Egypt has just announced the discovery of a new gas field in the eastern Mediterranean. A discovery that could make Egypt one of the world’s leading suppliers of natural gas.
The preliminary surveys and studies carried out by the American company Chevron estimate the confirmed reserves at nearly 4,000 billion cubic feet (*) in the field called Al Narguess. The American company, in association with the Italian Eni and the Egyptian Tharwat, has three other concessions in the same region, a hundred kilometers north of Sinai. They hope to make new discoveries.
Egypt had already made a major gas discovery in 2015, the Zohr field made by the Italian Eni. A field that has enabled Egypt to cover all the needs of its 110 million inhabitants in terms of electricity, industrial production, and household consumption. That left almost 10% gas for export, which brought in $6 billion a year.
With the new discovery, Cairo hopes, initially, to achieve exports of 12 billion dollars and then to become the gas hub of the Eastern Mediterranean. Egypt has two liquefaction plants that allow it to export its gas, but also that of Israel.
Regional tensions with Libya
But these Egyptian ambitions cause regional tensions. Egypt decided last week to demarcate the economic waters facing Egypt’s western coastline. Waters adjoining that of Libya. The Libyan national unity government protested against what it considers a fait accompli with no legal value.
In Cairo, it is said that the unilateral decision aims to prevent an agreement between Turkey and the Libyan government of national unity on the sharing of economic waters which does not take into account Egyptian rights. Because of these tensions, the waters west of Egypt and east of Libya have not yet been explored for gas.
