According to the Oil & Gas Journal (OGJ) of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Egypt held proved oil reserves of 3.3 billion barrels as of January 2021.

Egypt has three main crude oil blends. The Suez and Belayim blends comes from aging offshore fields in the Gulf of Suez and are refined domestically, with only small quantities exported. The Suez and Belayim blends are medium, sour crude oil grades. The Western Desert blend comes from the newer onshore fields in the Western Desert and is a light, sweet crude oil.

Total liquid fuels production in 2021 was an estimated 660,000 barrels per day (b/d), about 561,000 b/d was crude oil and lease condensate.

Egypt’s total liquid fuels consumption currently outpaces its oil production. Egypt’s total liquid fuels production has benefited from higher natural gas liquids production from the large offshore natural gas fields that came online in the mid-2010s. However, overall total liquid fuels production has been declining because of a lack of significant crude oil discoveries in recent years.

In 2021, Egypt imported about 127,000 b/d of crude oil and condensate and exported about 98,000 b/d. Over half of Egypt’s crude oil exports went to India, and the remainder went to China and countries in Europe.

Natural gas exports

Egypt primarily exports its natural gas as LNG, although in 2018, it began exporting natural gas to Jordan via the AGP. Historically Egypt has been a net exporter of natural gas, but in the mid-2010s, Egypt had to import natural gas to meet increasing domestic consumption.

Egypt’s total natural gas exports have steadily increased since 2016, after some of its recent natural gas discoveries began producing, which created a surplus of natural gas for the country to export. Egypt’s natural gas imports declined to nearly zero by 2019 after reaching a record high of 294 Bcf in 2016; Egypt exported about 177 Bcf in 2019, according to US EIA’s latest estimates.

Egypt exported about 64 Bcf of LNG in 2020, according to the latest estimates provided by BP’s 2021 Statistical Review of World Energy. Most of Egypt’s LNG went to countries in the Asia Pacific region, with Pakistan, China, and Taiwan as the three largest importers. The United Kingdom also imported about 6 Bcf, or 10%, of Egypt’s total exports in 2020.