Egypt at the beginning of her way to a strong economy recovery

[The SC]

Egypt at the beginning of her way to a strong economy recovery that is based on sound footing, and protected by military force deterrent, with huge arms capable and any regional threat in the bud.

Eni and BP Make “Significant” Gas Discovery in Egypt
A new natural gas discovery on the coast of Egypt’s Nile Delta has been made by Eni and British Petroleum (BP).

The two companies own a 50-50 share of the Baltim South license, the area of the delta in which the “significant” discovery occurred, a statement by Eni said.

Over the last year, several finds in the area have ramped up oil and natural gas investment in the vastly energy-importing country.

The “super giant” Zohr discovery occurred last August. At the time, it represented the largest natural gas find in the Mediterranean Sea, according to Eni’s press release. The Nooros field was found last July.

Both finds – but especially Zohr – put Egypt on track to be energy independent in the next two years as they come online by the end of 2017. Zohr alone will produce the equivalent of 40 percent of Egypt total natural gas production based on 2015 rates.

Following the announcements on the finds, Egypt decided it would produce the gas for domestic consumption and cut liquified natural gas imports in order to pave the way for cleaner energy consumption.
The energy investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. said Thursday’s news was “positive given unsatiated domestic gas demand” in the Middle Eastern country.

Egypt has had history of insufficient fuel and natural gas supply causing widespread power outages and massive protests, especially during the summer months. Recent reports suggest the situation has improved over the past few months.

The Nooros field now pumps 65,000 barrels per day for the domestic market. The Greater Nooros Area holds an estimated 80 billion cubic meters of gas, according to Eni. The company any said the Baltim South find included gas-bearing rock with “excellent” reservoir properties 25 meters deep into the river delta.

http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...-Make-Significant-Gas-Discovery-in-Egypt.html

 

[The SC]

Feb 16, 2017
These Oil Majors Just Made Egypt Their Highest Priority

Since 2011, political instability and regional insecurity have plagued Egypt’s economy, and the energy sector has not been spared. Until recently a net gas exporter, Egypt turned into a net importer in 2014 after political turmoil plunged the country into continued energy shortages, with domestic demand outstripping supply. In addition, shattered investor confidence and several devaluations of the local currency deterred foreign companies from investing in Egypt.

But Cairo’s fortunes may have turned in August 2015, when Italy’s oil and gas major Eni SpA discovered Zohr, the largest gas field in the Mediterranean ever to be discovered.

Now Eni, as well as UK’s supermajor BP, are betting big on the Egyptian gas exploration and production, and will be making Egypt their top investment destination in the coming years, pouring billions of dollars in their projects there.

Eni plans to invest US$10 billion in Egypt over the next five years, chief executive Claudio Descalzi said at an industry event in Cairo on Tuesday. Egypt will become Eni’s primary investment target in the next two years, the manager added.

BP, for its part, invested more in Egypt than anywhere else last year, CEO Bob Dudley said at the same industry event.

“In 2016-17 we’re investing more money in Egypt than any country in the world, so this is important for us, we have confidence in the government,” Bloomberg quoted Dudley as saying.

According to Hesham Mekawi, North Africa Regional President, BP, as posted on the website of the Egypt Petroleum Show, “BP’s plan is to invest US$13 billion in Egypt by 2020”.

While in Egypt, the CEOs of the two oil giants also finalized the deal in which Eni sold 10 percent of the Shorouk concession, where the Zohr field is located, to BP. Eni’s Descalzi confirmed that production would begin this year. Zohr has total potential of 850 billion cubic meters of gas in place, the Italian company says.

Both Eni and BP – with decades of presence in Egypt – are now saying that projects involving Egypt’s gas would be their priorities in the short-to-medium term. While Eni is pinning its hopes on the largest gas discovery in the Mediterranean, BP – apart from partnering with Eni at Zohr – has included two West Nile Delta projects in its major plans for projects set to come on stream this year. The two West Nile Delta projects are “expected to develop 5 trillion cubic feet of gas resources and 55 million barrels of condensates from two BP-operated offshore concession blocks”, BP says.

Apart from Eni and BP, Shell also has operations in Egypt.

In the second quarter this year, Shell will begin drilling in the West Delta Deep Marine phase 9B gas field, according to the chairman of state-run Egyptian Natural Gas Holding, Mohamed El Masry.

Shell had stopped drilling activities in the Nile delta in March last year because of delayed payments. But Egypt expects to soon draft a repayment schedule to pay US$3.5 billion in arrears it owes to foreign oil and gas companies, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said earlier this week.

So while oil majors are still cautious and not splurging on investments following the downturn, Eni and BP are betting on Egyptian gas, and they have financial reasons to do so.

According to Adam Pollard, an upstream analyst at Wood Mackenzie, who spoke to the Financial Times in December last year: “Egypt it is different, because the gas price for newer contracts is relatively high and you are insulated because there is a price floor and a ready market. EGAS [the state gas company] is willing to negotiate the price to encourage investment, meaning that Egypt is bucking the global trend of reduced spending.”

According to a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from January this year, the new fields discovered and developed in the Nile delta and in the Mediterranean will help Egypt to increase its gas output from around 4 billion cubic feet per day now to 7.7 billion cubic feet per day over the next three years. This would exceed the country’s domestic needs – currently at 5.2 billion cubic feet per day – and would offer “an excellent opportunity to save excess quantities for future generations and/or export gas to other countries in the region and elsewhere”.

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-G...s-Just-Made-Egypt-Their-Highest-Priority.html

 

[EgyptianAmerican]

Feb 16, 2017
These Oil Majors Just Made Egypt Their Highest Priority

Since 2011, political instability and regional insecurity have plagued Egypt’s economy, and the energy sector has not been spared. Until recently a net gas exporter, Egypt turned into a net importer in 2014 after political turmoil plunged the country into continued energy shortages, with domestic demand outstripping supply. In addition, shattered investor confidence and several devaluations of the local currency deterred foreign companies from investing in Egypt.

But Cairo’s fortunes may have turned in August 2015, when Italy’s oil and gas major Eni SpA discovered Zohr, the largest gas field in the Mediterranean ever to be discovered.

Now Eni, as well as UK’s supermajor BP, are betting big on the Egyptian gas exploration and production, and will be making Egypt their top investment destination in the coming years, pouring billions of dollars in their projects there.

Eni plans to invest US$10 billion in Egypt over the next five years, chief executive Claudio Descalzi said at an industry event in Cairo on Tuesday. Egypt will become Eni’s primary investment target in the next two years, the manager added.

BP, for its part, invested more in Egypt than anywhere else last year, CEO Bob Dudley said at the same industry event.

“In 2016-17 we’re investing more money in Egypt than any country in the world, so this is important for us, we have confidence in the government,” Bloomberg quoted Dudley as saying.

According to Hesham Mekawi, North Africa Regional President, BP, as posted on the website of the Egypt Petroleum Show, “BP’s plan is to invest US$13 billion in Egypt by 2020”.

While in Egypt, the CEOs of the two oil giants also finalized the deal in which Eni sold 10 percent of the Shorouk concession, where the Zohr field is located, to BP. Eni’s Descalzi confirmed that production would begin this year. Zohr has total potential of 850 billion cubic meters of gas in place, the Italian company says.

Both Eni and BP – with decades of presence in Egypt – are now saying that projects involving Egypt’s gas would be their priorities in the short-to-medium term. While Eni is pinning its hopes on the largest gas discovery in the Mediterranean, BP – apart from partnering with Eni at Zohr – has included two West Nile Delta projects in its major plans for projects set to come on stream this year. The two West Nile Delta projects are “expected to develop 5 trillion cubic feet of gas resources and 55 million barrels of condensates from two BP-operated offshore concession blocks”, BP says.

Apart from Eni and BP, Shell also has operations in Egypt.

In the second quarter this year, Shell will begin drilling in the West Delta Deep Marine phase 9B gas field, according to the chairman of state-run Egyptian Natural Gas Holding, Mohamed El Masry.

Shell had stopped drilling activities in the Nile delta in March last year because of delayed payments. But Egypt expects to soon draft a repayment schedule to pay US$3.5 billion in arrears it owes to foreign oil and gas companies, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said earlier this week.

So while oil majors are still cautious and not splurging on investments following the downturn, Eni and BP are betting on Egyptian gas, and they have financial reasons to do so.

According to Adam Pollard, an upstream analyst at Wood Mackenzie, who spoke to the Financial Times in December last year: “Egypt it is different, because the gas price for newer contracts is relatively high and you are insulated because there is a price floor and a ready market. EGAS [the state gas company] is willing to negotiate the price to encourage investment, meaning that Egypt is bucking the global trend of reduced spending.”

According to a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from January this year, the new fields discovered and developed in the Nile delta and in the Mediterranean will help Egypt to increase its gas output from around 4 billion cubic feet per day now to 7.7 billion cubic feet per day over the next three years. This would exceed the country’s domestic needs – currently at 5.2 billion cubic feet per day – and would offer “an excellent opportunity to save excess quantities for future generations and/or export gas to other countries in the region and elsewhere”.

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-G...s-Just-Made-Egypt-Their-Highest-Priority.html

Finally some good news!

 

[KediKesenFare3]

I guess, this is the reason why Egypt does not invest in Wind energy anymore?

 

[EgyptianAmerican]

I guess, this is the reason why Egypt does not invest in Wind energy anymore?

I would prefer if we do invest in green energy but this is a much needed boost.

 

[KediKesenFare3]

I would prefer if we do invest in green energy but this is a much needed boost.

I personally wish all the best for Egypt. I'm just afraid that too much oil could lead to a unhealthy Saudization of Egypt.

 

[EgyptianAmerican]

I personally wish all the best for Egypt. I'm just afraid that too much oil could lead to a unhealthy Saudization of Egypt.

Saudization? You know Egypt has a population of 90 million right?

 

[c-dome1]

when army control the economy i dont see how much can egypt economy get better

 

[EgyptianAmerican]

when army control the economy i dont see how much can egypt economy get better

What are you talking about?

 

[c-dome1]

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/analysis-egypts-military-economic-empire-35257665

 

[EgyptianAmerican]

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/analysis-egypts-military-economic-empire-35257665

Did you even read what you linked Jew? Go screw off, stop trying to get involved in internal arab affairs and go run off in Israeli threads like the rest of your friends.

Green shoots

Egypt’s economy shows signs of life

The bitter medicine is starting to work

From the print edition | Middle East and Africa
Mar 9th 2017 | CAIRO
AT TIMES last year it looked as if Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt’s authoritarian president, was losing his grip. Faced with a faltering economy, he told Egyptians that they needed to sacrifice—by not eating or sleeping, if necessary. Perhaps they could send him their spare change too, he said.

Rummaging behind the cushions hardly seemed enough to turn around an economy plagued by political instability, and by terrorism that had scared off tourists and foreign investors. Moreover, while exhorting his countrymen to tighten their belts, Mr Sisi was squandering billions of dollars of aid from Gulf states on wasteful subsidies and on defending Egypt’s overvalued currency. The futility of these policies can be seen in a handful of figures: a gaping fiscal deficit that hit 12% of GDP last year; ballooning public debt (101% of GDP) and high unemployment (over 12%).

Yet there are signs that Mr Sisi is starting to put Egypt back on a more sensible economic track. In order to obtain a $12bn loan from the IMF last year, his government has raised the price of subsidised fuel and electricity, brought in new taxes and allowed the Egyptian pound to float.

The currency float was promptly followed by a sickening lurch in which it lost 50% of its value. It bounced back sharply in February, then retreated again (see chart). Though the medicine was bitter, it seems to have been just what was needed to lure foreign investors back into the Egyptian market. A sale of $4bn-worth of government bonds in January was more than three times oversubscribed, and foreign purchases of Egyptian treasury notes doubled in the same month. This appetite for investing in Egypt partly reflects a broader demand for emerging-market debt. But it is also a clear sign of growing confidence in the Egyptian economy.

That change in mood is also felt by Egyptians working abroad. Remittances, which accounted for as much as 7% of GDP in 2012, slumped by a fifth last year as people held onto foreign currency rather than send it home to be converted into overvalued pounds. Since the currency has floated, remittances are rising once more.

A weaker currency is also spurring growth, albeit gradual, in trade and tourism. Non-petroleum exports increased by 25% in January compared with the year before. Earnings from exports, along with new loans from the IMF and other sources, are plumping up the country’s foreign-currency reserves. In February they hit their highest level since 2011, promising to ease a shortage of dollars that has hindered Egyptian business. To be sure, businessmen gripe that it is still difficult to get the dollars that they need, and the government is still clearing a backlog of payments to oil firms and other multinationals.

Yet even as exporters celebrate, firms serving the domestic market are struggling. One measure of the health of the domestic economy comes from a purchasing managers’ index (PMI) compiled by Emirates NBD, a bank. Its figures suggest that private, non-oil economic activity has contracted for 17 consecutive months, even though official figures show that the economy as a whole (including oil and the state) has been growing. One reason is that the government’s efforts to cut subsidies mean Egyptians are spending more of their income on fuel and electricity, and have less left over for other things. A weaker currency has also led to higher prices for imports and fuelled consumer inflation. Red tape continues to tie firms in knots, although the government has promised to make it easier to do business, for example by smoothing the process for getting licences and permits to open factories.

The struggles of Juhayna, a big juice and dairy producer, are typical. Its profits declined by 34% in the third quarter of 2016 compared with the same period in 2015. Now it plans to raise prices and cut investment. Seif El Din Thabet, its CEO, blames its troubles on “the recession and low consumer purchasing-power”.

Yet there are signs that a broader recovery may come soon. The weaker currency is proving a fillip to some manufacturers, as consumers switch from expensive imports to cheaper domestic alternatives. Egypt’s trade deficit in January was 44% smaller than it had been a year earlier.

These benefits are yet to trickle down to the average Egyptian. “We hear about the improvement on TV and read about it in the newspapers, but on the ground, nothing is getting better,” says Ashraf Muhammad, a barber in Agouza. Inflation climbed to 28% in January. It will probably remain high if the government cuts subsidies and raises taxes this year, as planned. Prices for staples have skyrocketed; other products are no longer available. “Some medicines I use disappeared for a while,” says Mr Muhammad, who suffers from diabetes. “Now they are available, but at higher prices than before.”

The protesters who toppled Hosni Mubarak, the strongman who ruled Egypt from 1981 to 2011, demanded social justice. So Mr Sisi may be wary of imposing too much pain on Egyptians. His government has backed away from reforms in the past and may lose any sense of urgency when Zohr, a lucrative gasfield, starts production at the end of the year. But international investors and institutions are watching closely for any sign of backtracking. The IMF will review matters before sending Egypt more cash later this year. “We are seeing good progress,” said Christine Lagarde, the head of the fund, last month.

Egyptians are more circumspect. “I don’t blame the government for taking the hard way, but, at the same time, they should have considered the poor people,” says Mr Muhammad. Still, he is sure that things will get better, albeit slowly.


http://www.economist.com/news/middl...starting-work-egypts-economy-shows-signs-life

 

[Amun]

I guess, this is the reason why Egypt does not invest in Wind energy anymore?

Egypt still invest in Wind energy..also FYI... There will be a factory for SEIMENS to build fans blades for future expansions in wind energy.
http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1338271/siemens-build-blade-factory-egypt

 

[The SC]

Read the top left side about Bahrain, Egypt and Sudan..

 

[c-dome1]

i wonder when the economy was good?