Displaying items by tag: Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company

Egypt: According to the Middle East North Africa Financial Network, Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company's (EGAS) dues from the government-owned National Cement plant have hit US$131m. EGAS has demanded that its money be paid back, but it remains undecided when it will receive the dues.

"The total dues from the industrial sector are now more than US$1.57bn, for its natural gas consumption and the delay in paying monthly bills," said EGAS chairman Khaled Abdel Badie in a statement to Daily News Egypt. EGAS dues from public sector plants amount to 75% of the total debt, because they are not committed to paying the monthly consumption bills, the chairman added.

According to Abdel Badie, EGAS will not be able to cut its gas supply from the National Cement plant because the plant is government-owned and is linked to a gas line that comes directly from the field. Abdel Badie said that dues are continuously rising and that EGAS gave the industrial plants a debt re-scheduling, but only a limited number of private-sector plants took part. New committees were also formed to resolve financial obstacles between public entities, however, nothing has been resolved yet.

Egypt: The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) has cut the amount of gas it supplies to cement plants due to natural decreases in well productivity. Egyptian gas production dropped to 133Mm³/day from 166Mm³/day in May 2014, according to Mohammed Hassan, Assistant Deputy Chairman of EGAS. Subsequently EGAS has cut the volume of has it supplies to cement plants from 11.6Mm³/day by 7.08Mm³/day, a drop of 61%.

Egypt: Ten cement plants, accounting for 70% of Egypt's capacity, have been forced to temporarily halt production after state-run Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) stopped providing them with natural gas.

"These plants have not yet officially announced that they are shutting down. They initially gave employees 15 days off and have extended the leave by another week, because the agreed-upon daily supply of natural gas was stopped," said an official from the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI). He said that the plant owners are holding discussions with the prime minister to review gas prices to ensure that the cement sector can continue to operate. The shutdowns are costing each plant around US$2.14m/day on average.

EGAS supplies nearly 800Mft³/day of gas to the industrial sector at subsidised prices, of which 150Mft³/day is allocated for the cement sector. However, frequent power outages have forced the government to redirect gas supplies from some cement plants to meet the needs of power plants.

The Ministry of Petroleum had initially reduced gas supplies to cement plants by 35% in the first two months of 2014. "The government, represented by the petroleum sector, bears a cost of US$1.4bn from selling natural gas at subsidised prices to cement plants, whereas those plants export their production or offer it in the local market at international prices," said Petroleum minister Sherif Ismail.

Ismail said that the government is considering a new price mechanism for the industrial sector, however, any changes would be implemented gradually because of the difficult economic situation in Egypt 'which cannot withstand a sudden spike in prices.'