Egypt targets adding 330 million cubic feet a day to gas output before end-2026
Key Facts
Egypt’s Petroleum Ministry is targeting an addition of about 330 million cubic feet of gas a day to domestic output before the end of 2026, according to its announcement on September 16. The plan comes as output reached 3.65 billion cubic feet a day in August, after falling by 7 million cubic feet a day, according to a MEES report published on October 23. The figure highlights pressure on domestic supplies at a time when consumption rises during the summer. The ministry had said output stood at about 4.1 billion cubic feet a day, against demand of around 6.2 billion, in data dating to March 2026. The forecast that output would reach 6.6 billion cubic feet a day by 2027 was announced by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly in August 2025 and is not a new announcement in the timeline of this story.
The ministry said the expected increase would come from fields in the Mediterranean and Western Desert before year-end. In a separate announcement in September, the petroleum minister said 16 new exploration opportunities had been offered, including 7 offshore and 9 onshore, through the drilling of 16 wells targeting resources of about 6 trillion cubic feet. These opportunities cover the current fiscal year, while the announcement gave no specific date for production to begin from potential discoveries. The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company’s plan also includes drilling 16 new exploration wells during fiscal year 2026/2027, targeting the same resources. These programs place exploration within efforts to increase supply, but the addition of 330 million cubic feet a day remains a stated target before the end of 2026.
The move comes in a market where gas demand has varied seasonally. Domestic consumption reached about 7.28 billion cubic feet a day in July and August, compared with about 6.45 billion between October and March, according to Ahram Online. The State Information Service said average consumption rose 12.7% between the winter period from October 2025 to March 2026 and the summer period in July and August 2026. The widening gap between production and demand increases the need for additional supplies, while available coverage has pointed to Egypt’s reliance on liquefied natural gas imports. A report on the import bill linked its higher cost to the war on Iran, without establishing that declining production alone had doubled it.
The Petroleum Ministry links the recovery in investment activity to settling dues owed to investment partners, saying their settlement was a necessary step to create a climate for new spending on exploration, prospecting and field development. It added that restoring partners’ confidence helped support the return of investment activity and limit the decline in production. The dues had reached about $6.1 billion in previous years, before Ahram Online reported that they had been fully paid in June 2026. In this context, Eni said its investments in Egypt had reached $8.5 billion as of August 26, 2026. The company also announced a plan to invest about $8 billion more over the next five years.
Eni plans to drill 30 exploration wells and 200 development wells, according to Ahram Online, without announcing a detailed timetable for the program. Available coverage focuses on the Mediterranean and Western Desert and does not attribute the well plan to the Egyptian government. The scale of the program reflects the company’s continued bet on Egypt’s gas resources alongside the ministry’s plan to offer new exploration opportunities. But the number of wells alone does not determine the timing or volume of production, and the source did not announce a detailed implementation schedule. The targeted addition before the end of 2026 remains the nearest-term measure among the plans cited.
Further out, production from Cyprus’s Cronos field is scheduled to begin in 2028, at an expected rate of about 500 million cubic feet a day. Ahram Online said the field contains more than 3 trillion cubic feet of gas. On September 24, 2026, the Petroleum Ministry said Egypt and Eni were working to accelerate development of the Denise and Cronos fields and the Melehia facility to bring forward production. This places Cronos among future supplies, following the target of adding volumes from Egyptian fields before the end of 2026. The target of 6.6 billion cubic feet a day by 2027 remains tied to Madbouly’s statement in August 2025, while the available facts contain no announcement renewing it on November 7, 2026.