What are the reasons for the decrease in production and the increase in the import bill?

09:28 PM

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Books – Muhammad Abu Bakr:

Engineer Karim Badawy, Minister of Petroleum Resources and Minerals, reviewed at the weekly press conference held by Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister, after the government meeting, today; The challenges faced by the oil and gas sector in the recent period, due to the slowdown in production and exploration due to the increase in participant fees due to several factors, including : a gap between the selling price and the cost, and high levels of energy consumption with an increase in the global energy price, and the high exchange rate.

Badawi said that all these factors led to a decrease in production, a halt to new drilling activities, an increase in the import bill and pressure on hard currency, thus collecting more partner fees and increasing his ‘gap again between the selling price and the cost.

At the press conference, the Minister spoke about the measures taken to address these challenges, which included the periodic payment of participant fees to provide stable cash flows that lead to the resumption of production development, research and exploration activities, and offer investment incentive packages. along with more flexible pricing for products as they work to attract new investors. As a result, the import gap decreased and the supply costs of products decreased, leading to a reduction in the gap between price and cost, so that the problem of collecting disposables would end and the wheel could research and production return to distribution without barriers.

The Minister of Petroleum said that in order to achieve the objectives of the ministry and successfully deal with the current challenges and implement the stated measures, it was necessary to follow an integrated approach to achieve the stated objectives , by working with various state institutions and coordinating within the Council of Ministers to purchase the necessary fuel and pay the fees of foreign partners. , environmental and industrial committees to support the investment wheel through petroleum agreements, issue the laws, and discuss and issue any legislative changes necessary to encourage investment in the sectors petroleum and mineral wealth.

In this regard, the Minister emphasized the importance of continuing close work with foreign partners, noting that the number of companies working in the field of research, investigation and production (57) companies, including (8) major international companies and (6). specific Egyptian companies, and more (12) international companies that were specialized in the field of petroleum and technological services, he also explained in this regard that the incentive package was launched at the meeting with partners to enable activities Production will be promoted on August 26, 2024.

As a conclusion of the integrated approach to achieve the objectives of the ministry, the Minister of Petroleum Resources and Minerals reviewed the efforts made by inviting more than (20) Egyptian investors September 30 last year to enter directly to invest in the development of outdated areas to increase. production from them, and several of them showed interest in these opportunities, indicating that the necessary steps are being taken for this, he explained that among these steps are signing 5 memorandums of understanding with major national companies, with an emphasis on. attracting new parties from the Egyptian private sector to invest in the petroleum and mineral wealth sector.