Can you talk to me about Kuwait Energy Egypt’s role inside the Egyptian energy ecosystem as the country seeks its aspirations of becoming a regional energy hub?
From the investment and the commercial side of business we are actually very active in our investment in Egypt since inception. We were one of the first companies in Egypt to have a stable production for a long period, even during the pandemic, which is something that has been recognised by the [Egyptian] oil ministry and EGPC. In order to support Egypt to be an energy hub, we are also exploring potential opportunities with the ministry to expand our business, beyond our upstream business, into other areas, for instance to the downstream business and LNG activities. This is something that we are planning to enter and increase our investment in Egypt to be spread across other sectors like liquefied natural gases, refineries, and petrochemicals, which I think will indirectly support the target of Egypt becoming an energy hub.
Net zero and sustainability have been important topics of conversation within the energy industry, how are you focusing Kuwait Energy Egypt on hitting sustainability goals?
I think this sustainability goal is one of our main goals and we’re putting it at the heart of our priorities. What we have been trying to do since inception is to reduce our emissions and produce cleaner barrels. We were one of the first companies in the Western Desert that eliminated flaring in its assets. We don’t have gas flaring in our assets, which was a very big challenge for any company, especially in the Western Desert, because most of the gas is associated gas, and the economics to utilise associated gas are very marginal. However, we launched an initiative with the Minister of Petroleum to take command of this associated gas using small technologies that are fit for purpose in order to stop gas flaring in our assets, which proved to be a very successful initiative.
We have utilised EGPC facilities that were used almost 20 years ago with very good performance which is something that was a win-win situation for both of us because, for me, in order to utilise this small amount of gas, it was very hard to build a brand new facility. That’s why we thought out of the box. We approached EGPC to utilise one of their idle facilities that had stood still for almost 20 years. We had this initiative and took the risk to refurbish the facilities and move it to our field and it’s now working effectively handling our gas and has also become a hub for other neighbour companies to bring the gas to our facilities. This is one of the initiatives.
Another initiative that has been introduced by Kuwait Energy is using fibreglass pipelines. This fibreglass pipeline is a very quick and easy way to bring the remote associated gas from our different fields to the gas facilities that I mentioned. This is something that was introduced and is part of our effort to have a clean barrel and sustainable energy. We are also very keen in our operations to decarbonise the oil and gas that we’re producing. These are the kind of initiatives that we are introducing in order to have sustainability. While most of our production is oil, we are very clean in our processes and in our operation to make sure that whatever sustainability can be applied is done in order to meet the demands of the energy transition.
How has your company taken on board the lessons of digitalisation and digital transformation and what advantages has it brought?
Digitalisation has become a must, it’s not an option, especially for the oil and gas sector. We realised this earlier than many other companies. We were even ready for this transition and for the need and noticed the importance of digitisation earlier than other companies. This was proven during the pandemic. We didn’t have any interruption of our operations during the pandemic for several reasons. The first reason that we have in-house technology that can help our workers easily work remotely, whether in the field or in the office. This has been both in place and utilised in the company since 2016 – even earlier than the pandemic. The other thing in digitalisation, is that we’ve sought to have remote access to most of our facilities and our wells. Whenever we build a new facility, we make sure that it can be controlled remotely, and, also, with the least manpower possible in order to avoid any interruption in the future. This is actually one of our priorities that we’re very keen to have and will continue to build on because we are a very big believer that digitalisation is a must, it’s not an option right now.
What are your thoughts on EGYPS 2022? Are there any clear takeaways from the conference?
This is the fifth year of EGYPS in Egypt. And this is the fifth year for us to sponsor EGYPS out of our belief that it is a very important event. As you have mentioned, Egypt is now prepared to be a regional hub for energy. Being a regional hub for energy will require an event like this to market the opportunities in Egypt, not only in the upstream, but in the downstream and petrochemicals. This event can gather all the stakeholders in one place in order to catch up together to exchange ideas. I also think it has been a very strong gateway for Egypt during the past four years and this is the fifth year in a row to introduce the capabilities and investment opportunities that exist in Egypt to the whole world.
We have many operations around the world, not only in Egypt, we have operations in Iraq and Pakistan for instance, but I can tell you that Egypt is the most attractive among all these countries. As an investor, I want to work in a country with economic and political stability, where the margin per barrel is very high, and where the logistics is cheaper than other countries – Egypt ticks these boxes for us. I think having an event like this is a tool for the decision makers to interact together and to take the business steps forward for Egypt.
