Egypt Seeks to Reduce Oil Product Subsidies
Egypt seeks to reduce oil product subsidies to 30 percent over the next five years, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said on Monday, reversing an earlier decision to fully eliminate the subsidies by that time. "We respect the previous government's decisions and are committed to them, but there are changes we need to adhere to in the case of oil product subsidies, such as global energy prices and new discoveries among others," he said at a news conference. (Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein)
Iran's Oil Return to Boost SUMED Volumes
Egypt anticipates a ramp-up in oil volumes through the SUMED pipeline once Iran re-enters the world market - a move that is welcomed by Cairo, the country's petroleum minister Tarek El Molla told Reuters on Friday. SUMED, which owns and operates Egypt's Mediterranean port of Sidi Kerir, is half owned by state-run oil company Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. A group of four other Gulf Arab countries - Iran's arch rival Saudi Arabia, as well as Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar - owns the other half. Since a July nuclear deal with world powers…
Egypt Aims to cut Oil Debt to $2.5 bln
Egypt paid foreign oil companies $600 million in arrears in August and still owes them $2.9 billion, the petroleum minister told Reuters on Wednesday. Sherif Ismail also said Egypt aims to lower the amount of arrears it owes foreign oil companies to $2.5 billion by the end of 2015. Delays in paying back foreign companies had discouraged investment in Egypt's economy, battered by power cuts, attacks by militants and political turmoil triggered by a 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Egypt's energy sector received a boost last month when Italian energy group Eni said it had discovered the largest known gas field in the Mediterranean off the Egyptian coast…
Egypt, Saudis Ink $1.4 bln Energy Pact
Egypt agreed a three-month oil products deal worth $1.4 billion with Saudi Arabia's state-owned Aramco to begin in September, the oil minister told Reuters on Thursday. The deal stipulates that Egypt pay Aramco within a year, Sherif Ismail said. Financial support from Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia has helped Cairo keep its economy afloat and ease an energy crisis. Reporting by Ehab Farouk
Technip in $1.4bn Deal to Upgrade Egypt Refineries
Technip Italy S.p.A.* and SACE announced the finalization of a joint agreement with Midor (Middle East Oil Refinery) for a project to modernize and expand the MIDOR refinery near Alexandria, Egypt in the frame of the long-standing cooperation between Italian and Egyptian Governments and companies, especially in the Oil and Gas sector. The investment has an estimated total value of 1.4 billion US dollars and aims at improving the production quality of the plant, considered the most advanced of the African continent, by increasing its refining capacity from 100,000 to 160,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Eni Signs Heads of Agreement with Egypt Worth $5 bln
Italian oil major Eni signed heads of agreement with the Egypt worth $5 billion over 4-5 years, the oil minister and the company said on Saturday at a weekend investment summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. Oil Minister Sherif Ismail said he expected the investment in several discoveries would generate production of 900 million standard cubic feet of gas. He said the investment was for concessions in the Mediterranean, the Western Desert, the Nile Delta and Sinai, and added the deal would be finalised within six weeks. (Reporting By Stephen Kalin, editing by William Hardy)
Egypt Pays Down Foreign Energy Debt, Still Owes $3.1 bln
Egypt paid $2.1 billion of its debt to foreign energy companies, Oil Minister Sherif Ismail said on Wednesday, a move that could improve the investment climate and ease the country's worst energy crisis in decades. The payment was the third batch to energy firms in the past year, though the government still owes $3.1 billion, Ismail said in a statement. The statement did not identify the amounts specific companies would receive, but the foreign firms owed money by the Egyptian government include British majors BP and BG, the UAE's Dana Gas, and Italy's Eni.
Egypt Nears Deal for Algerian LNG Imports
Egypt expects to agree a deal to import liquified natural gas from Algeria as early as this week, ministry sources said on Monday, as the country seeks to ease a chronic energy shortage. The agreement for six Algerian cargoes of 145,000 cubic metres of LNG each could be signed on Monday or Tuesday during Minister Sherif Ismail's visit to Algiers, a ministry source told Reuters. Egypt struck a deal in November with Norway's Hoegh LNG for a floating storage and regasification unit that will allow the country to begin importing LNG, a natural gas chilled to minus 162 degrees Celsius into a liquid state. After repeated delays, it is expected to launch at the end of March.
Egypt Woos Investors for Coal-Fired Power Plants
Egypt is in talks with several big investors about building coal-fired power plants as it works to diversify its sources of generation amid the country's worst energy crisis in decades, the electricity minister said on Tuesday. Mohamed Shaker told a visiting delegation of American business executives that expanding the use of both coal and renewables such as wind and solar was key to the government's effort to end power cuts that regularly hit homes and shut down production lines last summer. The cash-strapped government is emphasizing the need to attract private investment in the creaking power sector…
Egypt Says BP Gas Project Restarted
Egypt's oil minister said on Thursday that BP's $10 billion gas project, stalled for three years, had restarted and that production would begin in 2017, a sign of progress in efforts to ease the worst energy crunch in decades. In another move that could help improve investor confidence, Sherif Ismail also said Egypt would pay $1.5 billion of the money it owed to foreign energy companies by the end of 2014. The minister told reporters on a visit to al-Aseel oil field in the western desert that production at BP's North Alexandria concession would begin in 2017, with 450 million cubic feet per day initially being extracted.
Egypt Reaches Deal to Revise Gas Prices
Egypt has agreed to revise the price it pays to buy natural gas to be extracted by German oil and gas group RWE DEA, a move likely to mean higher prices for the state. Oil Minister Sherif Ismail said on Wednesday that state-run gas company EGAS had reached an agreement in principle with RWE DEA to modify its current Delta concession contract, the first step by the government to fulfil a pledge to provide more attractive terms to foreign firms needed to boost production. The revisions aim to "strike a balance between the parties to the agreement regarding the costs of drilling, development, and production in these areas", Ismail said.
Egypt Reaches LNG Import Deal with Hoegh
Government, firm see terminal operational by third quarter. Expert calls timeline ambitious; gas badly need for power generation, industry. Egypt has secured a means of importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) that will help it address an energy crisis, although the LNG import terminal to be provided by a Norwegian firm will not be in place in time to ease painful gas shortages this summer. Egypt's oil ministry and Hoegh LNG said on Monday they had reached an agreement for Egypt to use of one of Hoegh's Floating Storage and Regasification Units (FSRU) for five years.
Egypt to Pay $1b Owed to Foreign Oil Companies
Egypt will pay about $1 billion of the money it owes to foreign oil companies within the next two months, the state's MENA news agency said, quoting Oil Minister Sherif Ismail. Egypt says it owes some $6.3 billion to those companies. It last year said it paid $1.5 billion of the money it owes the international firms as part of a repayment scheme seeking to revive confidence in the economy after years of turmoil. "A new chunk of around $1 billion will be paid to foreign firms within two months," Ismail said on Tuesday. The country has previously…
Kuwait Boosts Oil and Diesel Supplies to Egypt
Kuwait will boost its supply of crude oil to Egypt by nearly a third and increase shipments of petroleum products in a deal the Gulf state's oil minister said was an obligation to help Cairo through its problems. State-run Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) will provide 85,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil to Egypt, up from 65,000 bpd previously, state news agency KUNA said on Tuesday. It will also increase its supply of diesel and jet fuel to 1.5 million tonnes per year, up from 860,000 tonnes. The contracts run for three years and were signed on Monday, KUNA said.
Egypt Tries Harder to Stop Energy Firm Exodus
Egypt is enhancing exploration terms and striving to repay nearly $5 billion it owes to foreign oil and gas producers as it struggles to prevent them fleeing to more promising prospects elsewhere in Africa. Cairo needs them to expand exploration and bring new finds to production if it is to keep the lights on and avoid more civil unrest. But investors are hesitant - Egypt pays them barely enough to cover investment costs. The costing issue has been compounded since the 2011 overthrow of Hosni Mubarak by Egypt's inability to pay foreign firms for existing output and its decision to divert for domestic use the share of gas they normally get to export.
