Egypt’s natural gas output could dip next year: Egypt anticipates natural gas production coming in at 7.2 bcf/d in FY2021-2022, the Oil Ministry said in a statement on Sunday. This would be more than 250 mcf/d short of projections for the current fiscal year, which see daily production reaching 7.54 bcf/d, up significantly from 6.55 bcf/d in FY2019-2020. Natgas production from the Zohr field currently stands at 3 bcf/d, Oil Ministry spokesman Hamdi Abdelaziz told Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa last night (watch, runtime: 16:41).

The ministry is trying to ramp up exploration activity: Nine agreements worth USD 981 mn were signed to drill 18 natgas exploration wells in the first half of FY2020-2021, and last month the ministry launched its first oil and gas exploration auction of the year, putting up 24 blocks for auction in a round that will conclude on 1 August. It also aims to finish drilling 10 wells in the Delta and the Mediterranean, make preparations to drill another nine, and sign three development agreements worth almost USD 380 mn.

We’re also going to be exporting more: This comes a few weeks after the Damietta LNG plant restarted operations and sent out trial shipments of gas, almost eight years after shutting down in 2012. The facility has a production capacity of 4.9 tonnes per year, and has helped to raise Egypt’s export capacity to 27 mn cbm/d in January and February, more than double the rate in 2020.