Egypt Energy

Egypt is one of Africa’s main oil and gas producers, but it is also the continent’s largest consumer of energy. Both oil and gas are found throughout the country in multiple onshore and offshore regions, including the Mediterranean Sea, which is emerging as a major new gas basin. Nevertheless, sourcing enough supply to meet demand is the...

Egypt’s downstream energy markets are tightly regulated in terms of the prices consumers pay for the commodities and the scope of private sector participation. Still, the state has long promised a loosening of controls and increased opportunities for investment. A major step toward that type of deregulation is now under way, due to the...

Egypt’s ambition to generate 20% of electricity by renewable sources is facing some challenges. The country is rich in solar and wind resources, but Egypt is still navigating hurdles in search of the ideal legal regime to encourage investment whilst also protecting the state’s balance sheet from risky commitments. Although there was some...

Egypt’s power sector is racing to cope with demand, which is growing at the relatively high rate of about 6% per year. The rate is attributed to a fast-growing population and a subsidy regime that suppresses the price of electricity below a cost-reflective level that would normally encourage conservation. The state has a long-term plan to...

The announcement in 2014 that BP, one of the largest foreign investors in Egypt, plans to spend more than $12bn on its Egyptian operations over the next five years marks a significant reversal of fortunes for Egypt’s gas sector as well as for the country’s revenues.

The single largest structural shift in the last decade’s global energy markets, the emerging output of shale gas and oil in the US, is having its most disruptive effect on African oil producers. The US’s reliance on African exporters, which reached a peak of 20.34% of US oil imports in 2007, has sharply reversed as domestic sources of similar...