ALBAWABA - According to an announcement made by Minister of Petroleum, Karim Badawi, Egypt has dropped its goal for renewable energy by the year 2040, bringing it down from an ambitious 58% to 40%.
In light of this shift, there is a renewed focus placed on natural gas, which is anticipated to play a significant part in the energy mix of the nation for the foreseeable future.
Badawi stressed the need in attempting to entice a larger number of investments in gas exploration, especially in the Mediterranean area, which has a substantial potential for more discoveries, as reported by Reuters.
Egypt had committed to raising its proportion of renewable energy to 42% by 2035, with the goal subsequently being accelerated to 2030, in the run-up to the COP27 climate conference in 2022. However, the ambitious plan to increase renewable energy to 58% by 2040, which was introduced by then-Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker in June 2024, is now being abandoned.
The country continues to struggle with the management of its dependence on fossil fuels amid an array of issues. Notably, the output from Zohr, the biggest gas field in Egypt, reached its highest point in 2019 at 3.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d), but it has since decreased to 1.9 bcf/d by the beginning of 2024.
As a result of this drop, Egypt has been compelled to engage in increased gas imports, which include shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and supplies from Israel, in order to prevent major power shortages, according to Reuters.
Zohr, however, continues to play a pivotal role in Egypt's energy policy, with the Italian energy company Eni planing to start drilling additional wells in 2025 in order to increase production.
