CAIRO: Egypt’s natural gas production fell to a three-year low in the first five months of 2023, figures from the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) show, raising questions about the country’s efforts to position itself as a regional energy hub.

Currently the country is grappling with power shortages when a heatwave has driven up demand for cooling.

Gas production between January and May declined by 9% year-on-year and 12% when compared to the same period in 2021.

Egypt, which faces growing demand for gas from its population of 105 million, has been seeking a regional supply role, selling its own gas and re-exporting Israeli gas as liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

It received a boost from Italian company Eni’s discovery of the giant Zohr gas field in 2015, and started importing from Israel in 2020. But there have been few large discoveries since, and a significant increase in supplies from Israel would only be possible after major infrastructure investment.

Production at Zohr stands at 2.3 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), the government said last month, down from 2.7 bcfd in 2019.