Egypt's Ambitions to Become a Gas Hub Hindered by Mounting Debt Challenges

Five years ago, Egypt was one of the promising new regional and potentially global gas hubs. Following the massive Zohr discovery about a decade ago, the promise was justified. Now, Egypt has been forced to borrow to keep the lights on. The Zohr field, which Italy’s Eni discovered in 2015, began production three years later, ramping up very quickly to 2 billion cu ft daily in September from 350 million cu ft daily at the start of the year. Production rose further to 3.2 billion ft in 2019. After that, it began to decline, falling to 1.9 billion…