Egypt plans to restore gas production at its gas fields to normal by the summer of 2025

Mostafa Madbouly, the Prime Minister, said that Egypt hopes to resume normal production in its natural gas fields before next summer. He also indicated that the government was moving to settle arrears it owes to production companies.

Madbouly said at a press conference that the government's arrears had caused a drop in production, but he did not specify how much it owed or when the money might be paid back.

In March, sources said that the government set aside $1.5 billion to pay foreign oil and gas companies in the country. Arrears accumulated during a long-running shortage of foreign currency, which has since been eased.

Egypt is experiencing power shortages due to the high demand of cooling systems during summer. Most of the electricity in Egypt is generated by burning natural gas.

After natural gas was delivered, the government stopped so-called "load-shedding" power cuts.

Madbouly added that the government has set aside $2.5 Billion to make sure this doesn't happen again.

He also said that plans were in place to connect the Egypt-Saudi grid by summer 2025. Reporting by Nayera Awadalla and Nadine awadalla from Dubai, Momen Saeed atallah in Cairo. Editing by Michael Georgy & Mark Potter

(source: Reuters)