Egypt

At a glance

Egypt joined the SEforALL initiative in 2015, though it already has universal access to both electricity and clean cooking fuels, more than 90% of its primary energy consumption comes from fossil fuels.

Egypt is the third most populated country in Africa, and has considerable energy resources but it is the largest oil and gas consumer in Africa. Some of these resources are produced internally. Egypt is an oil producer (approx. 700’000 b/d) but the production has not been sufficient to cover internal consumption in recent years. Oil reserves were estimated at more than four billion barrels in 2015. Natural gas is also present and the reserves are the fourth largest in Africa, after Nigeria, Algeria and Mozambique. In the case of natural gas, the country is still a net exporter, although exports are narrowing. Fossil fuel subsidies contributed to energy demand and represent an important share of spending and budget deficit for the state. A subsidy reform is being implemented to reduce the burden for the state.

Renewable energies are also present in the Egypt energy mix. Hydropower represent around 9% of the electricity, coming from the dams on the Nile. Egypt is also developing new renewable energies such as solar and wind to diversify the energy mix. Electricity subsidies are still present and are rising.