Egypt reduces renewable energy targets to 40% by 2040, but keeps natural gas as the main focus

The Egyptian government has revised the renewable energy goal for 2040 from 58% to 40%, said Petroleum Minister Karim Badayi on Sunday. He also stressed that natural gas would remain an important part of Egypt's energy mix in years to come.

Egypt committed to increasing renewable energy production by 42% to its energy mix before hosting the COP27 summit in 2022. Later, this target was advanced to 2030. Then-Electricity minister Mohamed Shaker announced in June 2024 an ambitious plan for this to reach 58% by the year 2040. This target has now been abandoned.

Badawi told the Mediterranean Energy Conference in 2024's opening session that the message was to "work together" to increase discoveries, and to attract more investment through exploration bids. The goal is to make new discoveries in this region which has more riches, especially natural gas.

Egypt is still relying on fossil fuels as it tries to regain trust from foreign oil companies whose operations in the country slowed down after a currency shortage caused billions of dollars worth of arrears.

Since assuming office in July, Badawi met with numerous international energy firms, including Italy's Eni. Eni plans to drill new wells at Egypt's largest field of gas, Zohr in early 2025 in order to boost production.

In 2019, the production of gas in Zohr reached 3.2 billion cubic foot per day (bcf/d), allowing Egypt to become a net-exporter. By early 2024 the output had fallen to 1.9 bcf/d, which forced Egypt to import more gas through a pipeline connecting it to Israel and to ship liquefied gas (LNG). This was done to avoid a long-running load-shedding scheme.

Egypt imports fuel oil with high sulphur content. Imports reached 255,000 barrels of fuel oil per day (bpd), the highest level since at least 2016.

(source: Reuters)