2023-07-28 03:08:54
Egypt has reduced natural gas supplies by regarding 20% to a number of fertilizer factories operating in the country, starting in the middle of this week, and has notified the companies of this through official letters, according to two people familiar with the file who spoke to East Economy.
Reducing the quantities of natural gas for fertilizer factories that consume it most as feedstock, and that produce urea in particular, comes at a time when the Ministry of Petroleum is trying to increase the quantities supplied to power stations to contribute to solving the energy crisis that all governorates are witnessing recently.
Since the middle of last week, an electricity crisis has prevailed in Egypt, the first of its kind since 2014, but the government promised citizens to solve the crisis this week by providing the necessary petroleum needs for the electricity networks and raising gas pressure, which has not happened so far.
An informed person explained to “East Economy” that “some fertilizer companies have been notified to reduce gas quantities by 20%, without specifying a date to return the gas pressure to normal levels.”
On the other hand, the other person confirmed that “reducing the quantities of gas supplied will not affect the total production of fertilizer companies, as it is easy to compensate the quantities with the return of gas to its normal levels.”
How much diesel and gas does Egypt need to end the electricity crisis?
The Ministry of Electricity needs regarding 135 million cubic meters of gas and 10,000 tons of fuel oil daily, in order for the frequent outages to end and the electrical loads to be reduced throughout Egypt, according to a government official who spoke to East Economy earlier this week. He stressed that “if these quantities are available, Egypt will permanently close the page of power outages.”
Whereas, another government official told Eqtesad al-Sharq, earlier this week, that if larger quantities of gas are provided for electricity; “It will be at the expense of other sectors such as industry, fertilizers and petrochemicals.”
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