Government reduces gas to plants to solve power crisis

Daily power outages have lessened to periods of five hours daily since last Thursday following a meeting between the president and the ministers of petroleum and electricity in which he gave them instructions to solve the crisis as soon as possible.

The Ministry of Petroleum has stopped pumping gas to a number of fertiliser and cement plants to provide greater quantities to electricity stations, a move which comes at the expense of the industrial sector in Egypt, according to a senior official from Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS).

EGAS is currently pumping 350m cubic feet of gas per day to fertiliser and cement factories. The factories’ total needs are approximately 940m cubic feet.