The first gas field was discovered in Abu Madi in Nile delta 1967 by Belayiem Petroleum Company which was the start of natural gas discoveries in Egypt, followed by Abu Qir offshore gas field discovery in Mediterranean sea 1969 which was the first offshore gas field discovered in Egypt then Abu El Gharadig gas field in western desert 1971.
Mediterranean Sea represent the largest share from natural gas
production in Egypt with 62% followed by Nile Delta 19% then western desert 18%, produced by (20) companies, the most important operating
companies (PETROBEL, Khalda, PHPC, BAPETCO, and Burullus) and the most
important international companies working in Egypt (ENI, APACHE, BP and SHELL).
Recently, several discoveries of natural gas have been achieved to meet the demand of local market, such as Nooros discovery in Nile Delta, North Alex and West Nile Delta in Mediterranean sea and Zohr discovery which is considered the largest natural gas discovery in Mediterranean sea and one of the largest natural gas discoveries worldwide.
In the past five years, the petroleum sector has achieved an unprecedented increase in production. The average daily production increased from about 4 billion cubic feet per day in 2015 to about 7.1 billion cubic feet per day and achieved self-sufficiency in September 2018.