The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) has halted pumping gas to the old factory of Misr Fertilisers Production Company (MOPCO), El Masreya 1, Alexandria Fertilisers Company, and Methanex Corporation from 3 August as they carry out regular maintenance works. During this time EGAS will provide electricity plants with their gas requirements.
An official in EGAS told Daily News Egypt that the 135m cubic feet of gas a day pumped to fertiliser factories will be halted for 15-20 days in order for the factories to carry out regular maintenance work on their equipment.
He noted that Helwan Fertilisers Company (HFC) will carry out its regular maintenance work during the second half of August, halting the pumping of 42m cubic feet of gas a day to the factory.
The official explained that letters were sent to all fertiliser factories to notify them of the annual maintenance works to be carried out in August.
He went on to explain that about 205m cubic feet of gas are provided every day to the two fertiliser factories, Abo Qir and Talkha, which are both affiliated with the public sector. The time of these two factories’ annual maintenance has not yet been decided.
The official added that 125m cubic feet of gas pumped per day to Methanex is halted as the factory carries out the annual maintenance.
About 1.2bn cubic feet of gas are provided every day to houses, cars, and factories of moderate-consumption in August, according to the official.
The total available amount of gas is estimated at 5.35bn cubic feet per day, portioned into 4.05bn cubic feet from local production and 1.3bn cubic feet imported through two gasification ships and the Jordanian line, the official said.
He added that consumption-intensive factories—steel and fertilisers—need nearly 1bn cubic feet of gas a day in order to operate.
EGAS has agreed with the Ministry of Electricity to provide nearly 4.1bn cubic feet of gas per day to stations during August in order to operate units with full capacity to meet consumers’ needs.
