Egypt Natural joins gas exports club

"Egypt has jointed the club of natural gas exports in the last two years," Egyptian Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmi said yesterday noting that the country now ranked 13th among the world's gas exporters.

Fahmy was addressing the second conference of natural gas producing and exporting countries which started in Algiers Friday with the participation of representatives from 12 countries.

Egypt has entered the gas export market through three projects for liquefying natural gas, with a total annual capacity of 12.6 million tons.

Egypt will start to export liquefied gas to Jordan by the end of 2004. Syria and Lebanon are to follow, according to Fahmi, who added that Egyptian gas would be exported to Cyprus in 2005 via an undersea pipeline from the Syrian port of Baniyas.

On the other hand, Algerian President Abdul Aziz Butaflika will deliver a speech this morning before the conferees who started their negotiations on the latest developments in the fields of gas production and exportation.