Category: Egypt

Egyptian government working to pay off its debts to foreign oil and gas companies. UPI CAIRO, Oct. 3 (UPI) — After securing loans from national banks, the Egyptian Petroleum Ministry announced it paid off $1.5 billion of its debt owed to foreign oil and gas companies. "The government aims to reduce the debt to encourage firms to step up research and exploration operations, to boost local production of oil and gas and minimize imports, which in turn will spare the cash to continue paying Egypt’s due debts to its foreign partners," Petroleum Minister Sherif Ismail in a Thursday statement. The ministry’s announcement came the same week as it signed an agreement with a consortium of banks led by the National Bank of Egypt for $1.4 billion. The ministry said it still owes $4.9 billion to foreign firms. Egypt is the largest oil producer in Africa that’s not a member […]

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Emirati energy company Dana Gas taps deeper in Egypt’s Nile Delta region. UPI/Maryam Rahmanian SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 29 (UPI) — Emirati energy company Dana Gas said Monday it was the successful bidder for two onshore license areas in the Nile Delta region onshore Egypt. Regional subsidiary Dana Gas Egypt was awarded the rights to operate in the North el-Salhiya and el-Matariya onshore areas in the Nile Delta . "We are extremely pleased to have been awarded these two new blocks," Dana Gas Chief Executive Officer Patrick Allman-Ward said in a Monday statement. "The area is particularly well known to Dana Gas, given its long-term commitment to the Nile Delta." Dana is the sixth largest energy company working in Egypt . Overall, its share of production has reached 39,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Dana will hold 100 percent of the interest in the North el Salhiya […]

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CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian militant group claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bomb blast in a busy downtown Cairo street near the Foreign Ministry that killed two senior police officers and wounded several other policemen. Ajnad Misr, or Soldiers of Egypt, which has claimed previous attacks on police, said in a statement posted late Sunday on its Twitter account and on a militant website that it had used an explosive device on "officers of the criminal apparatus" as part of its campaign against security forces. It said a group of its members carried out "a new penetration operation to reach the foreign ministry’s perimeter and plant the explosive device." It did not say how they detonated the explosives. It said the attacks will not stop until "the ruling tyrants fall and God’s Shariah is established … and that when a hero dies he will be replaced by several heroes who […]

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ISIS’ Next Target: The Suez Canal Following ISIS blitzkrieg in which it took over nearly half of Iraq and a third of Syria in the blink of an eye, at which point it created its own Islamic State Caliphate resulting in Obama’s own personal war against the jihadists, some have wondered what is ISIS’ next step: surely its leadership will not merely stagnatte as one after another US predator drone bomb away the capital Reqqa until ISIS figurehead leader al-Baghdadi is killed or gravely wounded. To be sure, the one thing ISIS, which stunned the world with the speed of its ascent, can not afford is to stand still. So what is next on the strategic timeline for the Islamic State? According to one source, Al Arabiya, which cites Egyptian experts, the answer is none other than the Suez Canal , and the country it is located in: Egypt. […]

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A huge power outage caused black-outs across Cairo on Thursday causing major disruption across the city of some 20 million people at the height of the morning rush hour. Services were completely suspended on one of the city’s three metro lines and heavily disrupted on a second, the state MENA news agency reported. The electricity outage brought subway services in Cairo to a complete halt, inconveniencing the roughly 3.5 million Egyptians who use it every day. Water supplies to households and businesses were also disrupted, while the power outage also affected numerous state institutions including state television channels and radio stations which could not air without electricity to run their facilities. Energy ministry spokesman Mohamed al-Yamani said that "power is gradually being restored" after a fault cut supply to "some Cairo neighbourhoods". But two hours later, the whole of the city centre and several outlying districts were still without […]

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The deficit for fuel supplied to stations this month increased to approximately 8m cubic metres of gas and equivalent daily compared to 7m last month. The deficit for fuel supplied to stations this month increased to approximately 8m cubic metres of gas and equivalent daily compared to 7m last month. More > , The electricity deficit reached approximately 6,180MW on Monday, resulting in power outages for periods exceeding five hours daily, said an official at the Ministry of Electricity. A 1900MW portion of the deficit resulted from a shortage of 8m cubic metres of gas and equivalent while another 2500MW was attributed to poor technical conditions at power stations, partially a result of failure to carry out the necessary maintenance and repair operations. The deficit increased by approximately 1700MW as a result of a rise in the sulphur content of fuel oil supplied to the plants. This led to clogs in fuel oil […]

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The deficit for fuel supplied to stations this month increased to approximately 8m cubic metres of gas and equivalent daily compared to 7m last month. The deficit for fuel supplied to stations this month increased to approximately 8m cubic metres of gas and equivalent daily compared to 7m last month. More > , The electricity deficit reached approximately 6,180MW on Monday, resulting in power outages for periods exceeding five hours daily, said an official at the Ministry of Electricity. A 1900MW portion of the deficit resulted from a shortage of 8m cubic metres of gas and equivalent while another 2500MW was attributed to poor technical conditions at power stations, partially a result of failure to carry out the necessary maintenance and repair operations. The deficit increased by approximately 1700MW as a result of a rise in the sulphur content of fuel oil supplied to the plants. This led to clogs in fuel oil […]

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The Suez Canal–one of the world’s vital trading routes–is set for the first major expansion in its 145-year history. Egypt’s ambitious multi-billion-dollar plan, which could nearly double the waterway’s capacity to 97 passing ships a day by 2023, has been largely welcomed by shipping industry executives and economists, albeit with some skepticism. Sure, the expansion will help relieve bottlenecks. The Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, can mostly only facilitate one-way traffic–either ships heading north or south–as it is too narrow at some points for vessels to cross both ways. The new canal is expected to solve this problem, cutting the waiting time for ships to three hours from 11 hours. The waterway, however, won’t be deepened to allow fully-laden supertankers, which usually lighten their […]

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Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi signs a document at an event marking the announcement of plans for a major upgrade of the Suez Canal, in Cairo August 5, 2014. Reuters CAIRO—One of the world’s great trading routes, the Suez Canal, is set for the first major expansion in its 145-year history, if a planned multibillion-dollar investment by the Egyptian government goes ahead. Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi this week announced plans for a ‘new’ Suez Canal that will run in parallel to the current waterway, which provides a vital shipping link between Europe and Asia. The Egyptian plan, part of an $8.4 billion project to upgrade the Suez Canal, could raise its capacity to 97 passing ships a day by 2023, up from 49 currently. But while shipping industry executives have welcomed the idea of expanding the Suez Canal to help relieve bottlenecks, there are doubts over […]

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