“Egypt is a regional center for oil and gas trading: opportunities and challenges… The nation-state projects have given confidence to foreign investors”

 The Oil & Gas sector’s policies & strategies related to Corporate Social Responsibility played a significant role in supporting the state’s efforts to raise awareness among its companies about the social, economic and environmental duties towards the society, in addition to shedding the light on the successful CSR initiatives that were launched in collaboration with the major IOCs in light of the Egypt 2030 vision.

  In this symposium, Canada Egypt Business Council and the Egyptian Business Council for International Cooperation had the honor to host H.E. Eng. Tarek El Mola; Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Mr. David Chi; Vice President & General Manager – Apache Egypt Co., Mr. Sameh Sabry; Senior Vice President – Wintershall, Mr. Khaled Kacem; Chairman – Shell Egypt, Mr. Marco Rotondi; Managing Director – IEOC-ENI discussing the topic “The Oil & Gas Sector … Investing in our Communities”.

In the opening remarks Eng. Motaz Raslan; on behalf of CEBC & ECIC; was pleased to welcomed the presence of our dear distinguished members, guests, ambassadors, the followers of the meeting via online live streaming, heads of international oil companies and leaders of the petroleum sector and H.E. Eng. Tarek El Mola, hoping that things will return to normal soon and our meetings will be with the direct attendance of all. I see that the global economy has faced enormous challenges during the past two years, and most of its sectors have been affected by the outbreak of the Coronavirus, whose repercussions are still haunting all world markets. The Egyptian oil and gas achieved a series of successes and achievements despite all challenges to attract the attention of major international companies and enter the focus of global attention.

Then he continued, before I enter into the topic of our symposium today, I would like to mention some important stations in the march of this sector, including its contribution to about 24% of GDP in 2019-20 and achieving a surplus in the petroleum trade balance by about 9.5 billion pounds during 2020/2021. In addition, 99 agreements were signed to search for oil and gas within 7 years, with investments of $17 billion. Add to this the establishment of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum and the reduction of the dues of foreign partners to $845 million in last June, compared to $6.3 billion in 2013. All these successes could not have been achieved. Were it not for a vision and strategy, she was able to write this success story and transform this thorny file from a crisis to the largest supporter of the economy. Here I am reminded of a famous saying by the famous American author Dale Carnegie (I am determined to reach the goal, either I will succeed or I will succeed). Indeed, this saying applies to what was achieved in the oil and gas file. There was a goal and a determination to achieve it. He set before him only one path, which is success.

Finally, I think that The achievements of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources have extended to support and support the efforts and plans of the state to achieve sustainable development through Egypt’s Vision 2030 with its economic, environmental and social dimensions. Basic priorities for society and citizens. (As the Russian proverb says, a wall is not built from one stone), so the vision of the Ministry of Petroleum was to unite between national and foreign oil companies to support initiatives, programs and projects that affect the areas and groups most favored and to achieve an effective and positive contribution to development efforts in all governorates., and we thank him for accepting the invitation despite his many concerns, to share the dialogue with us and tell us about the ministry’s future ambitions and plans then he gave the floor to H.E..

  H.E. Tarek El Mola; in his speech, said that the major national projects implemented by the state during the past years made foreign investors feel confident to invest in Egypt.
He added that the projects implemented by the state worked to create a general climate and encourage investment, noting that EGP 1.2 trillion has been invested in oil and energy projects during the past 6 years.

  H.E. indicated that for the first time, research and exploration were conducted in the Red Sea, and the demarcation of the maritime border with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia opened new horizons for discoveries, noting that a group of international companies applied to search in the Red Sea and the tender was awarded to 3 companies.

  He pointed out that, the petroleum sector witnessed during the last period strong support from the political leadership, as everything that was achieved came as a result of the support of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

  He explained that the debts of foreign companies have been reduced, and the establishment of car gas stations has been expanded within one year by about 400 stations at the level of the Republic. He added that about 6.5 million natural gas has been delivered to homes over the past years, in addition to the fact that work is underway to deliver gas to villages in the Egyptian countryside as part of a “dignified life program”. 

The minister pointed out that $74 billion has been invested during the last period in the petroleum sector, of which $48 billion have already been implemented from projects in 6 years and $18.5 billion are being implemented in existing projects, and the remaining 10% of this amount will be spent on projects that are being implemented. Preparing the study for it and it will be implemented in 2023/2024.The minister revealed that the refining sector is the largest sector that achieved a return during the last period.

H.E. announced that a new strategy is currently being implemented with the aim of supporting and increasing the participation of the petroleum sector and its partners in participation and community development aimed at the sustainability and development of these participations, noting that the petroleum sector’s initiatives in this field exceed 2 billion pounds during the last five years.

Eng. El-Mola added that these contributions are an essential part of the activity and culture of the sector, and that the main pillars of the community development strategy in the sector are education, training, economic development, health, environment and gender equality in addition to participation in presidential initiatives, for example, the initiative for a decent life, pointing to the formation of a higher committee headed by him to manage projects Community development through specialized committees and a plan to communicate with a unified system that aims to harmonize and parallel all the efforts of foreign and local companies in this important activity, in addition to providing training programs for workers in this field, as well as establishing a community participation department for each sector company.

The minister stressed the importance of the Egyptian state’s efforts in demarcating the maritime borders with neighboring countries in the growth of the activity of research and exploration for oil and gas and making huge discoveries because it represents a safety factor for companies operating in these areas, as the discovery of the back came thanks to the border demarcation agreement with Cyprus in addition to the demarcation of borders with Saudi Arabia, which opened a field for petroleum work in the Red Sea region, which had not witnessed petroleum activity before, indicating that the results of seismic research in this region showed the existence of promising reservoirs and capabilities that attracted the attention of major international companies, and the minister also indicated that the companies that come to work in Egypt for the first time. Once or already operating companies are attracting other companies to work in their concession areas, including the entry of the Australian BHP company to work with Chevron in the Red Sea region

The minister pointed out that the petroleum sector has more than 120 companies that have strong contributions in their various areas of work. Mr. David Chi; Vice President & General Manager – Apache Egypt Co., Mr. Sameh Sabry; Senior Vice President – Wintershall, Mr. Khaled Kacem; Chairman – Shell Egypt, Mr. Marco Rotondi; Managing Director – IEOC-ENI; For their part, they reviewed the models of their community companies’ participation in their areas of work in Egypt in the fields of education, health, environment, economic development and infrastructure. For example, a discovery was made by the Italian company Eni, and before the production process began in it, 320 million pounds were allocated to project development in Port Said to implement 3 development projects. A community center in the governorate, which is the establishment of a medical center serving 20,000 citizens, a training center to develop youth skills, and a school for technological education in the governorate.

 Additionally, the German company, Wintershall Dia, had adopted a campaign to restore homes in the Desouq area in Kafr El-Sheikh, which began in 2019, and 200 homes have already been restored.

As well as the Dutch Shell Company’s interest in improving the standard of living of citizens in Western Sahara and Matrouh, providing job opportunities and providing educational programs for children and youth. Over the past three years, more than 2,000 engineers and specialists and more than 10,000 workers have been trained.

The American company Apache has provided educational programs to about 50,000 Bedouin girls, as well as training of 1,000 teachers in cooperation with the American University in Cairo, stressing that they are all projects designed to serve the needs of society and were implemented with a vision aimed at achieving sustainable development goals.

Then the session was opened for questions and answers where The Minister answered several inquiries and questions from many participants, as he indicated that the petroleum sector achieved record rates in many fields during the period 2014-2021, discussed and many attendees praised the ongoing efforts of the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.