Egypt’s hosting of the COP27 climate conference next year, and the UAE’s hosting of COP28 in 2023, are good opportunities to work together and create initiatives which will help the world navigate through the energy transition and climate change, Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum Tarek El Molla said on Monday.

Molla was speaking at ADIPEC 2021, a global forum held in Abu Dhabi, UAE, focused on the oil, gas and energy industry. The event comes as the oil and gas industry has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic and while governments continue to accelerate plans to transition away from fossil fuels.

“We as Egypt hosting the COP next year, with my brothers from the Emirates the following year, I think we have good opportunity to work together with the world in order to make sure we have good initiatives and realistic ones that could be implemented, and could reach us to safe shores in the coming few years,” Molla said.

The minister went on to highlight the importance of the plans for a global energy transition “being responsible and responsive.”

Zohr field and self-sufficiency

Molla noted that Egypt three years ago was “in a bad situation,” with the country left having to import its gas needs through liquefied natural gas (LNG). However, this situation has since changed, with the country now exporting LNG at a significant rate.

“Thanks god we were able with the cooperation of our partners, major partners, strategic partners, international oil and gas organizations, to reach the self-sufficiency through the big discovery of Zohr,” Molla said.

This development has left Egypt now exporting over a million tons of LNG a quarter, compared to virtually non-existent exports last year.

“This is significantly important as we need to have such revenues in order to make sure that we can invest them into renewables and into this transition period,” Molla explained.

“Our responsibility will be into continuously having such responsible manner of managing our oil and gas industry globally definitely and to transit with technology with having lower emissions and so forth,” the minister concluded.