CAIRO
Egypt's national oil company Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation has announced the discovery of two new oil reservoirs in the Gulf of Suez and the Western Sahara.
Each reservoir has a capacity of 600 barrels of oil production per day, Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) said in a statement on Sunday.
Egypt’s refined petroleum output averaged 445,000 barrel per day in 2013, suggesting the refinery was operating at a capacity of about 63 percent.
The country’s refinery output declined by 28 percent from 2009 to 2013, despite growing domestic oil consumption.
But the potential capacity of the two current reservoirs cannot meet Egypt's growing thirst for oil.
Output decline
The Annual Statistical Bulletin of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) suggests the decline in output has been due to foreign oil producers based in the country being allowed to export more crude oil in order to increase revenue to the heavily indebted EGPC.
Egypt has needed to import petroleum to make up for the shortfall in output, and the imported oil is sold in the domestic market at a lower price than that at which it was purchased, which has led to a $19.6 billion budget deficit to date this year.
According to the U.S Energy Information Administration, Egypt is the largest non-OPEC oil producer in Africa and the continent's largest oil consumer, accounting for more than 20 percent of total oil consumption there last year.
Despite Egypt having the largest oil refinery capacity in Africa, it operates well below capacity.
Power plants assisted
Most of its imports came from countries in the European Union and Asia.
Some Persian Gulf countries have sent Egypt $3 billion in petroleum supplies to help the country cope with its lower output in domestic refined oil.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have sent Egypt gasoil and fuel oil to help fuel the country’s power plants.
Egypt imported almost 170,000 barrel of petroleum products per day in 2013.
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