Mediterranean Action Plan

242
ENERGY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
From the point of view of oil imports, it is rather complicated. Only imported oil products from
outside the borders are being considered. However, Egypt is obliged to buy (with world
market prices) a good deal of the foreign partners share from crude oil produced from the
different wells to meet increasing local consumption.
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports for the year 2005 reached 251 bcf. The importing
countries were Spain (125 bcf), USA (73 bcf), France (37 bcf), South Korea (10 bcf), and
Japan (6 bcf).
The following table (I.1) gives the ratio of oil products imports (from outside Egypt)
expenditure to the revenue from exports of oil (crude and products including share of foreign
partners) for the period 1998 to 2005. During this period, this value has an average of about
35% with a maximum value of 57% for the year 2000 and a minimum value of about 20% for
the year 2003 and then climbed to 35% by 2005. This means that cost of oil products imports
is consuming about one third of the revenues of oil sector exports. From another side, oil
products imports share in merchandise imports increased from 3% in 1990 to 8% in 2004
reflecting a continuous increasing trend. One has to notice that these imports are from
outside the country and do not include in land purchases from the share of the foreign
partners and also oil products from private companies at world prices paid in local currency.
Table 1 Ratio of oil sector imports to oil sector exports money wise
Item 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Oil sector exports BLE 3.11 4.339 6.67 6.22 6.79 15.38 20.01 31.76
Oil products imports BLE 0.926 1.652 3.788 2.577 2.071 3.063 6.398 11.131
Imports/exports % 29.77 38.07 56.79 41.43 30.50 19.92 31.97 35.05
Source: www.idsc.gov.eg
BLE: Billion Egyptian Pounds
Coal
Coal resources are limited in Egypt. It has a low quality and is mainly used as a raw material.
Egypt began mining coal in 1996. Before 1996, production was at zero and thus, Egypt
depended totally on importing coal from various countries including USA and Canada. Coal
produced in Egypt is ranging from .025 to 0.6 mtoe a year and mainly for exports. However,
coal is being imported now as feedstock for the steel industry and ranges from 1 to 1.2 mtoe
a year.
Electricity
The electric network interconnection with Libya started functioning since May 1998 and with
Jordan since October 1998. The interconnection with Syria through Jordan has been
operational since March 2000. As shown in table (I.3), except for the two years 1998 and
1999, Egypt is a net exporter of electricity to its neighbors (Libya, Jordan and Syria).
Table 2 Electricity exports and imports to neighboring countries
Item 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Exports GWh 53.8 140.8 196.9 461.6 489.4 1175.6 1004.4 900.4 747.8
mtoe 0.012 0.031 0.043 0.101 0.107 0.256 0.219 0.196 0.163
Imports GWh 66.4 157.6 159.8 217.4 210.4 136.9 148.7 167.4 192.6
mtoe 0.014 0.034 0.035 0.047 0.046 0.030 0.032 0.036 0.042
Net Export mtoe (0.003) (0.004) 0.008 0.053 0.061 0.226 0.187 0.160 0.121
Source: Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC)
The share of electricity exports as a part of commodity exports is recent and very modest. It
has reached a peak of about 1% during the year 2002/03 and then starts to decline reaching
0.45% by the year 2004/05. This declining trend is mainly due to the reduction in the
electricity exports to Jordan compared to previous years, as Jordan started to receive the
Egyptian NG through the pipeline "Arish-Aqaba" which fueled its own power generating
facilities. Future plans to expand the network interconnection to Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey
are expected to increase electricity exports. Total value of net electricity exports during
2005/2006 is estimated to reach US Dollars 57.5 million.