Egypt’s petroleum ministry has responded to the country’s struggles to keep the lights on by pushing for additional domestic gas production and expanding its LNG import capacity. But some industry watchers say the North African country should be doing more to prepare itself for a future energy crunch. Expanding wind and solar power capacity presents one solution — and efforts are already under way on that front. But with most of its electricity still generated from gas, Egypt is looking vulnerable as output from its existing gas fields declines and new projects are slow to take off. Gas still accounts for 80% of Egypt’s power generation, while renewable energy contributes just 12.7%, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. But the country’s gas production has declined steadily from a record 7.2 billion cubic feet per day in September 2019 to just 4 Bcf/d in May 2025, raising its dependence on imports. Privately held Egyptian firm Blue Ocean Energy agreed this week to ramp up gas purchases from Chevron’s big Leviathan gas field offshore Israel, but most of the additional 130 billion cubic meters would not start flowing until 2029, and it also requires a fresh transmission deal as well as approval of the Leviathan Phase 2 expansion project. Separately, Egyptian Natural Gas (Egas) recently secured the country’s fifth floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), the Energos Winter, with a five-year lease deal that starts in August. Egas is reportedly also in talks with Qatar about a long-term LNG supply deal.
