(AFP Photo / Khaled Desouki)
By: Nada Badawi
Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ossama Kamal said in a statement on Saturday that the Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ministry will be unable to provide power plants with enough fuel in the coming period.
Kamal made the admission during a meeting with the Egyptian Cabinet that discussed the issue of fuel shortages.
He said that “there is a 25% in fuel insufficiency for power plants in the country”.
In an attempt to reduce the shortage, the Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ministry announced a bid to import 500 million cubic feet of fuel daily in order to meet the needs of power plants throughout the country.
“Egypt has a dire need to import 750 million cubic feet of gas daily to meet needs of power plants and factories,” officials from the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) said.
“A total of 5.75 billion cubic feet of gas is being produced on a daily basis, but what is actually consumed is 6.5 billion cubic feet daily,” they continued
Next week the Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ministry is due to submit details of all the solutions it is considering to address the crisis.
“This is an obstacle for Egypt’s National Electricity Grid,” the Ministry said, adding that: “Only 2,000 megawatts have been produced in the past two days due to fuel shortages.”
Fuel shortages have also become a daily occurrence for cab drivers and industrial and agricultural sectors after the government decided to increase fuel prices by 50%.
