Fuel oil, gas supplies to power plants secured

CAIRO – 10 September 2017: The current fuel oil’s (mazut) consumption of power plants stands at 27,000 tons per day, compared to 29,000 tons per day during the summer months of July and August, an official at the Ministry of Petroleum said Saturday.

Enough quantities of local natural gas are also being supplied to the power plants, securing their needs. This, in turn, caused a balance in the operations of the plants, the official, who requested to remain anonymous, told Egypt Today.

The power plants’ gas demand constitutes 65 percent of Egypt’s natural gas consumption.

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.

The Electricity Ministry is facing a challenge in meeting the costs of generating electricity amid increasing fuel demands for power plants and rising debts owed to government entities.

To address this, the ministry introduced new power tariffs, with price increases ranging between 15-36 percent depending on the consumption bracket.