Photo taken on Feb. 11, 2020 shows a view of Egypt Petroleum Show in Cairo, Egypt. The fourth edition of the Egypt Petroleum Show "EGYPS 2020" kicked off on Tuesday in Cairo, with the participation of some 465 petroleum companies. (Xinhua/Wu Huiwo)
CAIRO, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- The fourth edition of the Egypt Petroleum Show "EGYPS 2020" kicked off on Tuesday in Cairo, with the participation of some 465 petroleum companies.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated the three-day event, which includes a conference and an exhibition, and is held under the theme "North Africa and The Mediterranean, Delivering the Energy Needs of Tomorrow."
More than 465 companies and 1,600 participants from 14 countries, including China, are participating in the conference which will run through Feb. 13.
Egyptian Presidential Spokesman, Bassam Rady, said in a statement that the conference and the exhibition highlight the achievements of the Egyptian oil and gas industry.
Meanwhile, Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tareq Al-Mulla said in a speech during the opening session that the oil and gas sector contributed in 2018-2019 with 27 percent of the gross domestic product in Egypt at a value of 1.4 trillion pounds (89 billion U.S. dollars).
The Egypt Petroleum Show is North Africa and the Mediterranean's largest oil and gas exhibition and conference.
EGYPS's international country pavilions play a key role in enhancing bi-lateral trade, creating the opportunity for dialogue and long lasting agreements.
Meanwhile, Board Chairman of Qingdao RuankongYunyi Heavy Industry Co., Ltd, Liu Yingjie, said the Middle East region is one of the key regions in the distribution of petroleum refining business, noting that his company participated in the event in an attempt to find Egyptian business partners.
"We attended the show to find Egyptian partners to cooperate with, because Egypt is an important energy hub in the region," he told Xinhua, adding that "This is our first time to come to Egypt, and if we can develop our business here, I think we can do more in African region in the future."
For his part, Roger Chen, client support manager of Mianyuan Technologies (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. said his company is a smart vibration data acquisition equipment technology company that provides vibration sensing solutions for energy and mineral exploration.
"We hope to open up the Egyptian market, as we know that Egypt is regional energy hub which has great potential," he told Xinhua.
Egypt aims to become a regional hub for the trade of oil and liquefied natural gas after major discoveries were made in recent years, including the Zohr gas field in the Mediterranean which holds an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Since July 2014, Egypt has signed more than 82 gas and oil exploration deals with investors, with a minimum investment of about 16 billion dollars.
