The leading industries of Egypt are oil and gas production, production of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers, acids, metallurgy, mechanical engineering (shipbuilding and repair, automobile manufacturing and production of technical equipment), light (textile, cotton, silk, wool, as well as clothing and footwear), food (flour and cereals, sugar, tobacco, fruit and vegetable canning), pharmaceuticals, construction (cement, granite production).
Interesting fact: Egypt is one of the oldest oil-producing countries in the world. Commercial production began in 1910.
Oil and gas production and refining. The volume of oil production in 2023 averaged 570 thousand barrels per day. Production is mainly concentrated in the Western Desert (56%) and on the shelf of the Gulf of Suez (23%), to a lesser extent in the Eastern Desert (12%) and on the Sinai Peninsula (9%). The total number of companies in exploration and production projects in the Egyptian oil industry by the early 2020s was 43. In August 2023, the Egyptian Ministry of Oil announced the discovery of a new field with an initial production volume of more than 2.5 thousand barrels per day.
Egypt ranks 3rd in Africa in terms of proven natural gas reserves – more than 2100 billion cubic meters, being its 2nd producer (after Algeria), a major consumer and exporter. The main reserves are concentrated in offshore and deepwater fields in the Egyptian economic zone of the Mediterranean Sea (62%), the Nile Delta (19%) and the Western Desert (18%). The largest Mediterranean natural gas field is the Zohr field.