The petroleum ministry says production has already stabilised — now it’s going on the offensive with the most ambitious upstream drilling campaign in years
Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has unveiled an ambitious 2026 roadmap anchored by the drilling of 101 exploratory wells, a push designed to arrest a prolonged slide in national oil and gas output and rebuild the country’s reserves. Minister Karim Badawi confirmed that the ministry successfully reversed the production decline by the end of 2025 and that the primary goal for the year ahead is to grow output while continuing to meet domestic demand.
Natural gas supplies, Badawi said, have been fully secured for all national sectors since last July. The ministry has also committed to regular monthly payments to foreign partners, a move intended to shore up investor confidence in Egypt’s upstream sector.
To sweeten the deal further, the government has rolled out flexible incentive packages designed to encourage upstream activity, alongside a strategic focus on regional energy connectivity — particularly with Cyprus. Egypt is simultaneously beefing up its credentials as a regional gas hub by deploying Floating Storage and Regasification Units with a combined capacity of 2.75 billion cubic feet per day.
In the downstream refining sector, the ministry is pursuing a series of projects scheduled between 2026 and 2030 with the goal of achieving self-sufficiency. Expansions at the Middle East Oil Refinery will push capacity to 160,000 barrels per day, while the Assiut National Oil Processing Company’s diesel complex is being fast-tracked as a key piece of the transition.
On the mining side, the ministry is targeting a meaningful increase in the sector’s contribution to national GDP, leveraging the mineral-rich Arabian-Nubian Shield and dedicated mining port infrastructure to get there.
Source: egyptoil-gas.com