Big oil and gas discoveries in the Mediterranean and Libya are very welcome news for Egypt

Egypt’s energy security got a nice shot in the arm this week thanks to discoveries at home and in Libya. The finds will take time to bring online, but are a welcome development for a country already staring into the teeth of an energy crisis thanks to disruption of supplies from Qatar (natural gas), Kuwait (crude) and other traditional Gulf suppliers.

Enidiscovered a reservoir in the Eastern Mediterranean believed to hold some 2 tcf of gas and c. 130 mn barrels of other light hydrocarbons. Critically, the fiend is in shallow water just 10km from existing infrastructure, meaning Eni and its partner (a local unit of BP) could bring the field into production quicker.

In context: Egypt has been on a drive for the past year to restore its credibility with Big Oil — and that campaign appears to be paying off, if the on-stage love-in at an American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt event) with the oil ministry was anything to go by.

MEANWHILE- The Libyan National Oil Corporation announced three shallow discoveries — two gas fields being tapped by Algeria’s Sonatrach and Eni, and an oil field by Spain’s Repsol — in a sign that relative stability is drawing IOCs back to low-cost Libyan exploration after years of conflict-driven suspension.

Why does Libya matter so much to Egypt? As we exclusively reported earlier this week, Cairo just signed up to buy 3% of Libya’s totalcrude output to compensate for supplies Egypt isn’t getting from the Gulf.