WB: U.S. $500 mln loan to connect 1.5 mln Households to Natural Gas

The World Bank's Board of Directors Friday approved a loan of US$500 million for a project aimed to expand natural gas access to 1.5 million Egyptian households in eleven governorates, including three governorates (Sohag, Qena and Aswan) located in Upper Egypt, where poverty levels are the highest, the World Bank's news center reported.

The Egypt Household Natural Gas Connection Project will support the Egyptian government's program to replace household consumption of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), which is mostly imported, with grid-connected natural gas. About 52 percent of the neighborhoods targeted by the project have poverty rates higher than Egypt's national average.

"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. "Conversion to piped natural gas will help give households access to a safer, more reliable and cheaper supply of gas compared to buying LPG cylinders."