ENTSOG TYNDP 2017 - Main Report

Egypt According to the EIA country report 2015, Egypt is currently the second largest producer and has the fourth largest proven reserves of natural gas in Africa. Howev- er, production has declined in recent years. Development of natural gas discoveries has been delayed due to a lack of investment driven by economic and political factors. LNG exports from Egypt stopped in 2014 as reported by IGU (International Gas Union) 2016 World LNG Report and the country became an importer in 2015 to cope with increasing domestic demand, particularly in the power sector, as petro- leum usage is replaced. The giant Zohr gas field in the Mediterranean Sea, with estimated reserves of around 850bcm, could grant energy independence to Egypt for many years  1) . Egypt has an exportation pipeline, the Arab Gas Pipeline (AGP) which connects it to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. There are also two LNG plants, for which the BP Statis- tical Report reported exported volumes of 3.7bcm in 2013, of which 79% went to Asia reflecting the global LNG market at the time. Europe was the second largest export destination that year, highlighting the potential for deliveries of LNG in future. Israel Israel currently has 200 bcm of proved gas reserves according to BP Statistical Report 2016 but the two offshore fields Leviathan and Tamar in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea could reach total estimated reserves of almost 1Tcm  2) . Israel’s current priority is to protect its energy security and in June 2013 approved an export cap of 40% of the country’s natural gas reserves as an estimation to supply the national domestic demand for 25 years. On the other hand, Israel is more open to export additional gas to neighbouring countries like Jordan first, with the initial natural gas pipeline scheduled to begin operation in 2017 and to which Leviathan partners have already agreed to supply 45bcm during the next 15 years. Another remote export options for Israeli gas would be to supply Egypt by pipeline and also to export gas directly to Turkey or Greece, the latter through the Trans-Med project considered in this TYNDP.

 1) Source: https://www.eni.com/enipedia/en_IT/international-presence/africa/enis-activities-in-egypt.page  2) Source: http://www.delek-group.com/Portals/0/delek/presentation/present.pdf

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