Most important of all the country’s mineral resources is mineral oil. In
1992/93, the production reached its peak so far at 45 million tons, decreasing
to 33.9 million tons in 2000/01. Most of it is used to meet the country’s high
demand for electric power (see Table 9.4). The production of natural gas and
its derivatives reached 21.6 million tons (Ministry of Information 2002b). In
1999, Egypt gained more than US$1.3 billion from the export of petroleum
and petroleum products (Internet 2000a). However, the net profit from the
export/import of crude oil and related products fell drastically from US$1.5
billion to 0.6 billion between 1997 and 2002. Petroleum ranked in fourth place
in providing hard currency for the country in 2000/01, after tourism (US$4.27
billion), the remittances of Egyptians working abroad (US$3.02 billion) and
income gained from the Suez Canal (US$1.82 billion) (Ministry of Informa