Egypt has revised its 2040 renewable energy target to 40 percent, down from the previous goal of 58 percent, as announced by Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi. He highlighted that natural gas will continue to be a critical component of the country’s energy mix for the foreseeable future.
Before hosting the COP27 climate summit in 2022, Egypt pledged to raise renewable energy production to 42 percent of its energy mix by 2035, later advancing that target to 2030.
In June 2024, then-Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker announced an ambitious plan to raise this to 58 percent by 2040, a target now abandoned.
In the opening session of the Mediterranean Energy Conference 2024, Badawi stated, “This is a call for all of us to collaborate on increasing discoveries and attracting more investments through the exploration bids being offered, with the goal of making new discoveries in the region, which possesses significant wealth, especially in natural gas.”
The continued reliance on fossil fuels comes as Egypt works to rebuild trust with foreign oil firms, whose local operations slowed after a hard currency shortage left the country with billions of dollars in arrears.
Since taking office in July, Badawi has met numerous international energy companies, including Italy’s Eni, which plans to start drilling new wells in Egypt’s largest gas field, Zohr, in early 2025 to boost production.
Zohr’s gas production peaked at 3.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) in 2019, enabling the country to become a net exporter. But output declined to 1.9 bcf/d by early 2024, forcing Egypt to increase gas imports through a pipeline linking it with Israel as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments to avoid a load shedding scheme that went on for months.
Egypt has increased its imports of high-sulphur fuel oil, reaching 255,000 barrels per day (bpd) in September, the highest level since at least 2016.
