Category: Egypt

By Summer Said Egypt plans to repay its $3.1 billion debt to international energy companies operating in the country by mid-2016, almost a year later than initially planned, the country’s oil minister said. "We have already reduced the debt from $6.3 billion at the start of 2013 to $3.1 billion at the end of last year," Oil Minister Sherif Ismail told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. "We have no certain timetable for the next payments but we plan to pay back the entire amount by mid next year." Since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and the turmoil that ensued, Egypt has struggled to pay foreign energy companies that provide oil and gas for its domestic market, including: BP PLC (BP), Apache Corp. (APA), BG Group (BG.LN) and Dana Gas PJSC (DANA.AD), an energy company based in the United Arab Emirates. Egyptian officials hope the […]

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Emirati energy company Dana Gas sees strong foundation for growth in Egypt. Photo: Dana Gas. SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 2 (UPI) — Emirati energy company Dana Gas said there was positive momentum building behind its exploration and production operations in Egypt. Dana said two concession agreements signed for operations in the Nile Delta provides the company, the sixth largest gas producer in Egypt, a strong foundation for growth . "We see this positive momentum continuing and are excited about our exploration and development plans in Egypt," Chief Executive Officer Patrick Allman-Ward said in a Sunday statement. Dana in early January said it received $60 million from the Egyptian government, which represents about a quarter of its outstanding debt . Political and economic instability in Egypt has left the government in debt to energy companies eager to tap the country’s natural gas potential. The government recently agreed to cover […]

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CAIRO (Reuters) – Twenty-five people were killed in a bomb attack on military buildings in the capital of Egypt’s restive North Sinai province on Thursday, while an army major was shot dead at a checkpoint in Rafah near the Gaza Strip, medical and security sources said. The flagship government newspaper, al-Ahram, said its office in the town of Al-Arish, which is situated opposite a military hotel and base that security sources said were the intended targets of the bombing, had been "completely destroyed". Later, suspected militants killed an army major and wounded six others at an army checkpoint in Rafah, security sources said. An Islamist insurgency based in Sinai has killed hundreds of security officers since president Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood was removed from power following mass protests against his rule. Tensions have also been raised across Egypt this week by protests, some of them violent, marking […]

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01/15/2015 Eni SPA will resume exploration offshore Egypt under concession agreements based on production sharing it has signed covering two deepwater blocks offered in Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co.’s 2013 bid round ( OGJ Online, Sept. 25, 2014 ). Eni subsidiary IEOC is operator. The company holds 100% of the North Leil block, covering 5,105 sq km in 2,050-3,000 m of water about 170 km offshore. It holds 50% of the Karawan block, which covers 4,565 sq km in 1,200-2,200 km of water about 107 km offshore. BP PLC holds the remaining interest. The Karawan block is adjacent to the west of the North Leil block and adjacent to the east of the Shorouk block, which Eni acquired last year. Royal Dutch Shell PLC drilled a dry hole on the Karawan block in 2001 and a dry hole on the North Leil block in 2007. Eni has worked in […]

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Italian energy company Eni said it signed an agreement to work in the Western Desert of Egypt. UPI/Shutterstock/ekina MILAN, Italy, Jan. 9 (UPI) — With payments surfacing for its counterparts, Italian energy company Eni said Friday it signed an deal to operate in a license area in Egypt’s Western Desert. Eni said it was strengthening its position in Egypt by signing a concession agreement for work in the Western Desert. The deal follows an international auction held in 2013 by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. "This new acquisition adds to the list of exploration successes achieved in the area over the past two years and further strengthen Eni’s position in Egypt, an area of historic and strategic importance for the company," it said in a statement. Eni is one of the main oil producers in the country. Operating there since 1954, the company said it had an equity production […]

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Liquefied natural gas giant BG Group says that, while operations are dwindling, it remains committed to exploring its options in Egypt. (Photo: BG Group) LONDON, Jan. 2 (UPI) — While operations there are fading, British energy company BG Group said Friday it would continue investigating options in Egypt after receiving a debt payment. BG Group said it received $350 million in debt payments from the Egyptian government, reducing its balances to around $920 million. "While the group has been impacted by the reduction of LNG exports from Egypt, the company continues to investigate options for increasing the supply of gas and is working with the government on resolving the outstanding receivable balance," the company said in a statement. A similar payment was disclosed by the company in October. In January 2014, the company said the Egyptian government wasn’t honoring agreements regarding its share of natural gas from Egyptian fields, […]

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CAIRO (Reuters) – An Egyptian judge sentenced 185 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death on Tuesday over an attack on a police station near Cairo last year in which 12 policemen were killed. The ruling is preliminary and subject to a lengthy appeals process. It also goes to the country’s top religious authority for approval although his opinion is not binding. The sentence comes days after another court dropped charges against Hosni Mubarak over the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his 30-year rule. The attack on the Kerdasa police station took place on Aug. 14, 2013, the day that Egyptian security forces cleared two Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo, killing hundreds of people in one of the bloodiest episodes in Egypt’s modern history. Of those sentenced, 151 are in custody, with the others being tried in absentia, a judicial source said. Egyptian authorities have rounded up […]

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CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian militant organization allied with the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the killing of an American oil worker. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which now refers to itself as the Sinai Province, said on its official Twitter account late Sunday that it killed William Henderson. It published pictures of his passport and two identification cards. It did not say when or how it killed him. The passport said he was a 58-year-old from Texas and his identification cards said he worked for Texas-based energy company Apache Corp. and Qarun Petroleum Co., a joint venture with Egypt. Apache said in August that one of its supervisors had been killed in an apparent carjacking in Egypt’s Western Desert. The company did not identify the man. The Enid News & Eagle in northwestern Oklahoma published an obituary for a man named William Henderson in August, saying he had […]

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CAIRO (AP) — An International Monetary Fund official says that Egypt’s economy has begun to recover after four years of slow activity. The statement from Chris Jarvis late Tuesday followed an IMF delegation visit to Egypt for a long-delayed assessment of the economy. He says that Egyptian authorities "have set appropriate economic objectives." The IMF says it projects Egypt’s growth to reach 3.8 percent in the fiscal year 2014/15, in line with the government’s own stated goals. Egypt’s growth rate has been hovering at around 2 percent since the country’s 2011 revolt. Finance Minister Hany Kadry Dimian has said he hopes the resumption of consultations with the IMF will help restore confidence in the economy. The government aims to attract investment by hosting a three-day international economic conference in March.

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By OGJ editors BP Egypt and its partners have committed to investing $240 million in two exploration blocks awarded by Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co. (Egas) in its 2013 bid round ( OGJ Online, Sept. 25, 2014 ). Block 3, North El Mataria, which marks BP’s entry into the onshore Nile Delta, lies in the northeastern section of the Nile Delta cone, 57 km west of Port Said. BP will operate the block with 50% equity and Dana Gas of Abu Dhabi will hold the remainder ( OGJ Online, Sept. 30, 2014 ). BP holds 50% interest in the Denise-Karawan (Deka) natural gas development offshore the Nile Delta, which started production in August ( OGJ Online, Aug. 22, 2014 ). Block 8, Karawan Offshore, lies in the Mediterranean Sea on the northeastern part of Egypt’s economic waters. The block is 220 km northeast and 170 km the northwest of […]

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BP commits to spending lavishly on exploration and production in Egypt. UPI/Maryam Rahmanian BP said it committed to invest $240 million on developing two new exploration blocks near the Nile Delta and in the northwestern Egyptian waters of the Mediterranean Sea through a partnership with Emirati energy company Dana Gas. "Exploring the two blocks will require substantial investments to unlock their potential, and will be done as part of our commitment to meeting Egypt’s energy needs," Hesham Mekawi, regional president for BP, said in a statement. BP said it will spend at least six years on exploration and production in the area. BP’s announcement follows a downgrade from rival BG group , which said last month it expects its Egyptian gas production to decline. BG Group said its activities in Egypt accounted for 10 percent of its production and around 3 percent of its earnings during the third quarter. […]

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CAIRO — They have slaughtered hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police officers, recruited experienced fighters and staged increasingly sophisticated raids from the Western desert to the Sinai Peninsula. They have beheaded informants and killed an American in a carjacking, say Western officials familiar with intelligence reports. On Monday, Egypt ’s most dangerous militant group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, also pledged obedience to the organization that calls itself the Islamic State, becoming its first significant international affiliate in the bet that the link will provide new money, weapons and recruits to battle the government in Cairo. The affiliation could pull the militant group away from its current, almost exclusive focus on attacking Egyptian military and security forces toward the Islamic State’s indiscriminate mass killings of civilians. The pledge alone could undermine the government’s efforts to win the trust of Western tourists, a vital source of hard currency. The decision injects the […]

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CAIRO — An Egyptian militant group that has waged a deadly campaign mostly against local security forces released an audio statement early Monday pledging its allegiance to the Islamic State, the extremist group fighting in Iraq and Syria. The statement, released on a Twitter account associated with the Egyptian group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, demonstrated the growing clout of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. The group has recruited jihadists from dozens of countries, including thousands of fighters from North Africa and the Persian Gulf. In the recording, which was said to come from Ansar Beit al-Maqdis’s information department, a man said the group promised to “obey” the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. (News reports from Iraq said Mr. Baghdadi was wounded in airstrikes over the weekend, but there was no definitive word on his status.) The confrontation between insurgents and the Egyptian government […]

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Islamist militants killed 31 Egyptian soldiers on Friday in two separate attacks in the northern Sinai Peninsula, the deadliest day in months in the volatile desert region. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi summoned ministers and officials to an emergency meeting of his National Defence Council after the attacks. Egypt ’s armed forces were reportedly preparing for reprisals in response to the attacks. More On this topic Investors eye Egypt energy opportunities US seeks Egypt’s help to counter Isis Blast in central Cairo kills at least two Egypt swelters in nationwide power cut IN Middle Eastern Politics & Society Tunisia police kill six ahead of poll Tunisia poll takes place amid disillusionment Houthi expansion threatens Yemeni strait Turkey allows Kurds to relieve Kobani The first, a massive car bomb explosion at a checkpoint protected by armoured vehicles northwest of the town of Arish, killed 28 soldiers. The second, a drive-by shooting […]

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BG Group says Egyptian government paid off a portion of its lingering debt. UPI/Stephen Shaver LONDON, Oct. 6 (UPI) — After receiving $350 million from the Egyptian government, British energy company BG Group said Monday the balance stands at around $1.2 billion. BG Group said the Egyptian government paid down some of its debt as a result of raising funds specifically meant to address arrears in the oil and gas sector. "While the group has been impacted by the reduction of liquefied natural gas exports from Egypt, the company continues to investigate options for increasing the supply of gas and is working with the government on resolving the outstanding receivable balance," it said in a statement. Egypt last year accounted for 18 percent of the natural gas production for BG Group, making the company one of the largest producers in the country. BG in January said the Egyptian government […]

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By Razak Musah Baba LONDON–BG Group PLC (BG.LN) has received a $350 million payment following the commitment from the Egyptian government to repay outstanding debts to the energy industry, the natural gas producer said Monday. BG said this reduces the company’s domestic receivables balance in Egypt to around $1.2 billion. "While the group has been impacted by the reduction of LNG exports from Egypt, the company continues to investigate options for increasing the supply of gas and is working with the government on resolving the outstanding receivable balance," the company added. BG Group operates in Egypt through its wholly owned subsidiary BG Egypt. -Write to Razak Musah Baba at [email protected]; Twitter: @Raztweet

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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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When the Suez Canal opened in 1869, it had taken hundreds of thousands of Egyptian workers 10 years to complete it. On Tuesday, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said he was ready to build another one. At a lavish groundbreaking ceremony that included a military air show and the symbolic detonation of demolition explosives, Mr. Sisi’s government announced an ambitious plan to build a new waterway that would expand the capacity of the existing canal while creating jobs and revenue for the government. Mr. Sisi set an equally ambitious timeline for the project, which would involve the digging or dredging of approximately 45 miles of earth and wetlands, saying the new waterway would open next year. “We are racing time, because we are very late,” he said. There has been talk for years of expanding the development along the canal, a crucial passage for international shipping that links […]

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Egyptian troops killed seven suspected militants and arrested five as part of an ongoing offensive in the volatile Sinai Peninsula where the military has been trying to quell a spreading insurgency by Islamic militants, an army spokesman said. According to a statement posted on Brig. Gen. Mohammed Samir’s official Facebook page late Monday, the troops killed three militants in an exchange of fire while four others died when a group tried to attack a house of in the border town of Rafah. Five militants were arrested and five were wounded, the posting said but it was unclear if the five were the same people in both cases. Militant attacks in Sinai and elsewhere in Egypt have escalated since the military’s ouster last July of the country’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and its subsequent crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood supporters. Militant attacks have also at times spread […]

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Cairo — The World Bank has agreed to give Egypt a $500 million loan to provide 1.5 million houses in 11 governorates with natural gas lines. "The Egypt Household Natural Gas Connection Project will support the Egyptian government’s programme to replace household consumption of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), which is mostly imported, with grid-connected natural gas," the website said in a statement on Thursday. About 52 percent of the neighbourhoods this project targets have poverty rates higher than the country’s national average, the statement said. "We are pleased to help improve the delivery of energy services to the people of Egypt," said Hartwig Schafer, World Bank Country Director for Egypt, Yemen, and Djibouti. "The project will provide financial support to finance the connection charges in disadvantaged areas so that poor households can also connect to the gas grid," said Husam Mohamed Beides, the project’s Task Team Leader. "We are […]

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When President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt said he intended to raise the price of flour, rice and other subsidized goods in 1977, he ignited days of riots that left more than 70 people dead and stood as a lasting warning to his successors about the perils of forcing impoverished Egyptians to make do with even less. So it was a surprise when, as one of his first major policy initiatives, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi sharply raised fuel prices two weeks ago, cutting deeply into energy subsidies, the most expensive single part of the government’s sprawling and expensive subsidy system. Even more surprising, perhaps, has been the absence of widespread civil unrest. The relative quiet appeared to signal an acknowledgment among many Egyptians that the fuel prices, which were among the lowest in the world, could not stay that way forever in an economy battered by years of […]

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Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) has released a report saying that the recent increase in fuel prices will increase taxi fares by 3-10 percent. The Egyptian government recently increased fuel prices by up to 75 percent in an effort to decrease the budget deficit and reduce an economic burden that has increased in the past three years due to political turmoil. Cairo Governor Mostafa Saeed has promised that the raise would not affect public transport fares. Egypt has also increased electricity prices.

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Militants in Egypt ’s northern Sinai fired mortar rounds late Sunday at a military post in El Arish, the provincial capital, killing a soldier and seven civilians, including two children, in a nearby residential complex, security and hospital officials said. A senior security official said the attack hit the military post, killing the soldier. The military post is near a compound of residential buildings in the Salam district. The main security headquarters and the local government offices are in the same area. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, said a supermarket, a pharmacy and a residential building were hit by the mortar fire. Samy Anwar, the head of the local hospital, said seven civilians were killed in the attack, including a 10-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy. He said 24 others were […]

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Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sheriff Ismail on Thursday 19/06/2014 said that the oil sector is carrying out an ambitious program for increasing rates of producing natural gas to meet the local needs. In statements while on an inspection tour of Desouk gas field in Kafr el-Sheikh, Ismail added that the plan will be implemented through developing the newly-discovered oil fields and enhancing exploration operations. He further noted there are positive signs about high productivity in the Delta area. The amount of subsidy for petrol, solar and mazut in Egypt during 2012/2013 fiscal year hit 128 billion pounds, said Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Sherif Ismail. Meanwhile, Ismail said that this amount of subsidy for petroleum products drains the state budget, adding that it is difficult now to revoke the subsidy system as it is related to several regulations, including the standard of living, unemployment rate, new projects […]

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The Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader and over 180 others were sentenced to death Saturday by an Egyptian court in the latest mass trial following last year’s overthrow of the country’s Islamist president. The ruling by the southern Minya Criminal Court is the largest confirmed mass death sentence to be handed down in Egypt in recent memory and comes from Judge Said Youssef, who earlier presided over the mass trial. It is the second death sentence for the Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie since the crackdown against his group began. The court acquitted more than 400 others in the case and family members of the accused wailed or cheered the verdicts. The case stems from an attack on a police station in the town of el-Adwa near the southern city of Minya on Aug. 14 which killed one police officer and one civilian. Similar revenge attacks […]

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A court on Wednesday convicted a prominent activist from Egypt’s 2011 uprising for demonstrating without permit and assaulting a policeman, sentencing him to 15 years in prison. The sentence against Alaa Abdel-Fattah is by far the toughest against any of the liberal, pro-democracy activists behind the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak’s 29-year regime. It is also the first conviction of a prominent activist since former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi took office as president on Sunday. In the 11 months since el-Sissi ousted the country’s first freely elected president, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi, authorities have launched a massive crackdown on Islamists, detaining at least 16,000 and killing hundreds. That crackdown has overshadowed another, albeit smaller, campaign against secular activists opposed to what they see as the return of Mubarak-era policies. Security officials said that while Abdel-Fattah was convicted and sentenced in absentia, he did turn […]

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A court on Wednesday convicted a prominent activist from Egypt’s 2011 uprising for demonstrating without permit and assaulting a policeman, sentencing him to 15 years in prison. The sentence against Alaa Abdel-Fattah is by far the toughest against any of the liberal, pro-democracy activists behind the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak’s 29-year regime. It is also the first conviction of a prominent activist since former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi took office as president on Sunday. In the 11 months since el-Sissi ousted the country’s first freely elected president, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi, authorities have launched a massive crackdown on Islamists, detaining at least 16,000 and killing hundreds. That crackdown has overshadowed another, albeit smaller, campaign against secular activists opposed to what they see as the return of Mubarak-era policies. Security officials said that while Abdel-Fattah was convicted and sentenced in absentia, he did turn […]

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CAIRO — Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former general who led the military takeover here nearly one year ago, was sworn in as president on Sunday, testing the bet that a new strongman can overcome the economic dysfunction and political polarization that bedeviled Egypt’s three-year experiment with democracy. In an address to dozens of visiting heads of state gathered in a gilded presidential palace, Mr. Sisi pledged to work for security and stability in Egypt and the region. “It is time for our great people to reap the harvest of their two revolutions,” he said, referring to the 2011 uprising that forced out President Hosni Mubarak and the 2013 protests that preceded the military takeover. Mr. Sisi, 59, now takes formal responsibility for a nation racked by three years of turmoil, scarred by the new government’s bloody crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and riven by deepening loathing between rival Islamist […]

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German energy company RWE Dea said Thursday it’s produced more than 640 million barrels of crude oil during its 30 years of operations in Egypt. The German oil and gas company marked Thursday as the 30th anniversary of work in the Gulf of Suez. It’s been working through the Suez Oil Co., a joint venture established with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. The company said production from the Ras Fanar, Zeit Bay and Ras Budran fields in Egypt have yielded 640 million barrels of oil since operations began in 1984. "For 30 years now, we have consistently leveraged new ideas to develop intelligent solutions, using the latest technology, and investing in our infrastructure," Maximilian Fellner, general manager of RWE Dea Egypt, said in a statement . "That’s how we have been able to maintain a high level of oil production from these three fields over an extended period of […]

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* Government hoping to avoid summer blackouts * Tender to supplement energy products donated by SaudiArabia * Raising energy prices could cause unrest CAIRO, May 31 (Reuters) – Egypt has launched a tender toimport hundreds of thousands of tonnes of petroleum products inthe third quarter of 2014, an energy official said on Saturday,as the country tries to stave off a summer energy crisis. Egypt’s government wants to avoid major power blackoutsduring the months of increased consumption in the summer, whenoutages are worsened by a dilapidated grid and a wastefulsubsidies system. The tender comes in addition to supplies from Saudi Arabia,which will deliver energy products to Egypt in July and Augustas part of an aid package announced after the Egyptian armyoverthrew Egypt’s first freely elected president, the IslamistMohamed Mursi. An official from the Egyptian General Petroleum Corp (EGPC)told Reuters that Egypt launched a tender on Thursday to import90,000 tonnes of […]

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With nearly all votes counted, Egypt’s former military chief has won a crushing victory over his sole opponent with more than 92 percent of the votes, according to results announced by his campaign early Thursday. The campaign of retired field marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said he won 23.38 million votes, with left-wing politician Hamdeen Sabahi taking 735,285. Invalid votes were 1.07 million, or nearly 350,000 more than the number of votes for the 59-year-old Sabahi. El-Sissi’s win was never in doubt, but the career infantry officer, also 59, had hoped for a strong turnout to bestow legitimacy on his ouster last July of Egypt’s first freely elected president, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi. According to el-Sissi’s campaign, the turnout nationwide was around 44 percent, even after voting was extended for a third day Wednesday – well below the nearly 52 percent turnout in the June 2012 election won […]

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After Egypt’s revolution three years ago, so many voters eager for democracy turned out for elections that officials had to scramble to accommodate the throngs. On Tuesday, the military-backed government confronted the opposite problem. Officials extended a scheduled two-day vote for a third day not because of long lines, but because so few people had shown up. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former army field marshal who deposed Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s first freely elected president, is still universally expected to win by a landslide. Yet the disappointing turnout has upended his supporters’ hopes that the vote would grant him new legitimacy after the ouster. When polling places around the nation remained largely empty on the second day of voting, signs of panic swept the government. Officials initially extended voting hours on Tuesday by an hour, to 10 p.m. Then, a holiday was declared for […]

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Egyptians voted on Monday in a presidential election expected to sweep former army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sisi into office, with supporters brushing aside concerns about human rights and hailing him as the strong leader the country needs. Three years after the historic uprising against Hosni Mubarak, the vote is set to restore a pattern of rule by men from the military after Sisi toppled Egypt’s first freely elected leader, Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Voters lined up to cast ballots at heavily guarded polling stations from 9.00 a.m. (2.00 a.m. ET). Sisi faces only one challenger in the two-day vote: the leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi. "We see Sisi as a real man. Egypt likes a strong man," said Saber Habib, clenching his fist to illustrate his point as he waited to vote in the city of Suez, east of Cairo. "We want the country to […]

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