Egypt’s exports of crude oil and petroleum products increased 16.8 percent during the first quarter of financial year 2017/2018, data from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) showed Sunday.
Petroleum exports amounted to $1.8 billion in the first quarter (July-September), compared to $1.5 billion in the same period last year, according to the CBE.
The data further showed that non petroleum exports increased by 8.6 percent, registering $4.1 billion, up from $3.7 billion last year.
The CBE attributed the increase to the improvement that exports saw following the flotation of the Egyptian pound.
Commodities exports increased by 11 percent, recording $5.8 billion, compared with $5.3 billion last year, due to the increase in petroleum and non-petroleum exports, according to the data.
Egypt’s Petroleum Ministry aims to increase its annual production of gasoline, diesel, butane gas and jet fuel by 11.6 million tons in the next four years, at an investment of $8.3 billion, boosting total production to around 28.5 million tons, up from the current 16.9 million tons.
This comes as part of the ministry’s plan to expand and develop refineries to boost domestic production of petroleum products, with the aim of filling the gap between production and consumption.
Source: Egypt today
