By Ahmed Tolba
The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), addressed the Ministries of Finance and Planning and International Cooperation, requesting $500 million in funding to help promote the sale of natural gas to an additional one million Egyptian citizens in the coming year.
President of EGAS, Sherif Susa, requested that the two ministries work to convince international donors to help fund the project, in addition to tapping into surplus funds, which would be accessed by restructuring the subsidies programme.
Susa indicated that EGAS had raised its targeted number of citizens buying natural gas in Egypt from 750,000 to 1,750,000 citizens.
He added that targeting these additional individuals was part of the subsidy restructuring programme, in an attempt to get consumers to switch from using LPG gas cylinders to using natural gas in their homes. Doing so he claimed, would cause a number of public sector Egyptian gas companies to become more profitable and help gain them larger access to the Egyptian market.
A new bid round is to be issued to private sector companies to participate based on a new model in which they would handle the delivery, while public companies would handle billing and customer care
Susa stated those targeted would primarily be located in Upper Egypt and Greater Cairo, in particular in the newly constructed buildings located in regions that depended heavily on LPG gas cylinder warehouses.
