According to statistics, despite the widespread of a global pandemic, low oil prices and reduction in demand in supply in 2020, Egypt had the highest number of hydrocarbon deposits discoveries made in Africa – Sixty-two (62).

Among the Sixty-two (62) hydrocarbon deposits discoveries made, forty-seven (47) were petroleum reserves, and fifteen (15) were natural gas reserves. Egypt accelerated its oil and gas exploration campaigns in 2020 to prevent the maturing of its crude fields from affecting its oil supply.

Egypt recorded a 13% growth of its discoveries in 2020, compared to 2019. The discoveries were made in the Western Desert, the Eastern Desert, the Gulf of Suez, the Nile Delta and in the Mediterranean Sea.

While drilling platforms were becoming scarce at sea and on land, Egypt’s pace of work did not drop. The work is as a result of an exploration policy desired by Cairo, which provided massive support to the oil and gas companies that were present in its territory during the crisis.

The Egyptian Petroleum Ministry said in a statement: “Modern technologies and advanced geological theories have contributed to better results in the search for oil and gas. These positive results indicate the success of research and exploration in the current oil fields, and suggest the existence of other oil resources which remain to be discovered.”

Egypt ranks 25th in the world in terms of oil reserves with about 4,400,000 proven oil reserves, accounting for about 0.3% of the world’s total oil reserves of 1,650,585,140,000 barrels. The proven reserves are equivalent to 13.7 times its annual consumption.