In the last few years there has been a lot of exploration activities for gas reserves in the Mediterranean that may change the map and landscape of gas exports.
Russia, Qatar & Algeria are all considered to be among the top producers of gas worldwide.
Egypt used to be a large producer, but 70% of its production was primarily used for its local market. However, in 2018, Italian company Eni, global oil and gas super-player, discovered huge reserves off the Egyptian coast putting Egypt again among the top exporters of gas.
The discovery by Eni has now made Egypt Africa’s largest non-OPEC oil producer - and the 3rd largest natural gas producer after Algeria and Nigeria.
Lebanon has already appointed a consortium consisting of Total (French), Eni (Italy) and Novatek (Russia) to start their exploration offshore.
In addition to this, Lebanon is also opening a tender for another exploration for gas in Block 4 with an area of 1911 Km2, which promises to make Lebanon a major gas exporting country.
The exploration of gas from the Mediterranean gives those countries a distinct advantage from other producers, as it’s very close to Europe that usually lay on the Russian gas, and also the Suez Canal represents a shortcut to the Indian Ocean and Asian markets.
The export maps of global export for gas will change soon and this promises an economic boom for the producing countries.