Power plants consume more gas because of heat wave: EGAS

CAIRO – 16 July 2017: Gas consumption of power plants reportedly hiked to 4.1 billion cubic feet of gas per day (cf/d) in July, compared to 3.8 billion cf/d of gas last month, due to high demands of power because of the summer heat.

Power plants demand for gas constitutes 65 percent of Egypt’s natural gas consumption, a source from the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), who preferred to remain anonymous, told Egypt Today Sunday.

EGAS imports 10 shipments of liquefied natural gas per month, the source said.
Egypt is currently seeing a nationwide heatwave, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celcius in Cairo.

Egypt produces 5.1 billion cf/d of natural gas, after production started at the North Alexandria Concession at a rate of 700 million cf/d of gas. The country’s consumption amounts to six billion cf/d of gas.

Launched in 2017, the multi-phase North Alexandria Concession project will be fully operational in 2019 with a production rate of 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas, approximately 30 percent of Egypt’s current gas production.

In May, British Petroleum (BP) announced that it started gas production from the first phase of the North Alexandria concession, which includes the Taurus and Libra fields, eight months before the scheduled date.

Petroleum Minister Tarek el-Molla said last month that the second phase of the project is moving along faster than planned.