First International Shale Gas Forum in Egypt

Eng.Sameh Fahmi, Minister of Petroleum, confirmed the importance of having unconventional alternatives to increase crude oil and natural gas reserves and production, noting that the extraction of natural gas from Shale layers is new significant element appeared on the world's energy arena in recent years and is increasingly important to contribute to achieving balance in the natural gas market and the future of world energy.

This came in the opening address of the Minister of Petroleum during the first International Shale Gas Forum in Egypt, on 18 Jan. , 2011, organized by the International Halliburton co., with the participation of representatives and experts from more than 60 specialized international companies.

Eng. Fahmi pointed out to the significance of holding such forums and conferences, that discuss the challenges facing the domain of Shale Gas, whether , economic, technical or environmental challenges helping to exchange information and experiences between the parties involved in the industry and encourage the transfer of advanced technologies in this promising field among experts of oil industry , explaining the importance of continued studies and discussions to assess the process of extracting natural gas from shale in Egypt and how to achieve the optimum exploitation.

Eng. Mahmoud Latif, Chairman of EGAS, clarified that the Petroleum Sector is greatly interested in the field of natural gas extraction from shale in order to diversify energy sources in Egypt. He pointed that a working group of experts in the Natural Gas Holding Company, the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, Ganoub El Wadi Petroleum Holding Company and the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority was formed to study this issue technically and practically to reach a comprehensive vision to determine potentials of extracting natural gas from shale in Egypt.

For his part, Eng. Hisham Ismail, Head of Halliburton Egypt, clarified the importance of holding this forum to achieve the best exploitation of shale gas, noting that Egypt is one of the countries of global interest in this domain and that Halliburton, is intensifying studies and researches about potentials of shale gas in Egypt.