It is estimated, however, that if the country continues extracting
mineral oil at the current rate, the reserves will last only until the year 2028.
Crude oil reserves were estimated at 3.8 billion tons in 2001, those of natural
gas at about 54 trillion ft3
 (ibid.). At present Egypt is trying to reduce its output
of crude oil and to use gas for the production of electricity. Gas and mineral
oil were subsidized by US$3.8 million in 2002. The most important oil fields
being exploited at present are along both coasts of the Gulf of Suez, a trough
fault, in whose Tertiary and Cretaceous rock layers the oil is found. These oil
fields were already known in Roman times, but systematic exploration and
production started only at the beginning of the twentieth century. Since the
1960s production has increased considerably (see Illustration 21). Vast new oil
fields have been explored in the country’s west in the Libyan Desert between
the Qattara Depression and the Mediterranean coast, in a fault running in
an east–west direction. Egypt’s hopes are presently concentrated on these.
In 2000, new oil fields were discovered in Beni Suef, Wadi er-Raiyan, Qarun,
Faiyum and El-Fors in the Qattara Depression.