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Egypt Eyes Gas Production Increase

Egypt plans to increase natural gas production from several key concession areas, including its giant Zohr field, in 2025. (Getty Images)
Egypt plans to increase natural gas production from several key concession areas, including its giant Zohr field, in 2025. (Getty Images)
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Egypt Eyes Gas Production Increase

Egypt plans to increase natural gas production from several key concession areas, including its giant Zohr field, in 2025. (Getty Images)
Egypt plans to increase natural gas production from several key concession areas, including its giant Zohr field, in 2025. (Getty Images)

Egypt plans to increase natural gas production from several key concession areas, including its giant Zohr field, in 2025, Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi said on Monday.

The government aims to ramp up output at Zohr by drilling new wells starting in the first quarter of 2025, according to a ministry statement. Production from the field remained stable at around 2 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) in the fiscal year 2023-24, which ended in June.

Zohr, once a game-changer that turned Egypt from a net gas importer to an exporter, peaked at 3.2 bcf/d in 2019 but has since seen output decline to 1.9 bcf/d in early 2024.

The drop was mainly due to foreign oil companies’ hesitance to invest as Egypt accumulated billions in arrears. However, in August, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced that his government had a clear plan to restore and increase production levels in cooperation with foreign partners.

Egypt is also seeking to boost pipeline imports from neighboring Israel and Cyprus while exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) through its two export facilities.

Additionally, Egypt signed a partnership agreement on Monday with Greece's Copelouzos Group to enhance the trade, transport, supply, and regasification of natural gas across Eastern Europe and Greece.

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Lebanon's New Central Bank Chief Vows to Fight Money Laundering

Lebanon's newly appointed central bank governor Karim Souaid speaks during a handover ceremony in Beirut on April 4, 2025. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
Lebanon's newly appointed central bank governor Karim Souaid speaks during a handover ceremony in Beirut on April 4, 2025. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
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Lebanon's New Central Bank Chief Vows to Fight Money Laundering

Lebanon's newly appointed central bank governor Karim Souaid speaks during a handover ceremony in Beirut on April 4, 2025. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
Lebanon's newly appointed central bank governor Karim Souaid speaks during a handover ceremony in Beirut on April 4, 2025. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP)

Lebanon’s new central bank governor vowed Friday that the institution will fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism and will work independently away from political intervention.
Karim Souaid, who was speaking after officially taking office in Beirut, added that he will work on restructuring the banking sector, public debt and returning money to depositors, The Associated Press reported.
Lebanon’s economy has been witnessing its worst crisis in its modern history since 2019 and the state must implement reforms demanded by the international community. Such reforms are needed to unlock international aid, and on top of that, Israel’s 14-month war with Hezbollah that caused what the World Bank estimates was $11 billion in damages and economic losses.

Since the historic meltdown began Lebanon has been running on a cash economy and in October, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, an international anti-money laundering watchdog, placed Lebanon on its “grey list.”
“We will work on implementing international laws on top of them combating money laundering and supporting terrorism,” Souaid said.

The former asset manager added that banks in Lebanon should recapitalize by pumping new money and those that cannot and don’t want to can merge with other lenders. He said that the priority will be to return deposits starting with people who have small accounts. He said the return of deposits should be the responsibility of the banks, central bank and the state.

Souaid said the central bank will study all economic recovery plans put forward by previous governments to help the small nation get out of the crisis.

Souaid also pledged to safeguard the central bank's independence from political pressure and prevent conflicts of interest.
"I will ensure that this national institution remains independent in its decision-making, shielded from interference, and grounded in the core principles of transparency and integrity," he said.

Wassim Mansouri, who had been acting central bank governor since July 2023, said the central bank’s reserves stood at 10.727 billion at the end of March.

Souaid succeeds Riad Salameh, the embattled former governor of 30 years whose term ended with several international corruption cases lodged against him and for embezzlement and other financial crimes.