Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said that his country needs to import about $1.18 billion worth of fuel oil and natural gas to alleviate the ongoing power outages, which have been exacerbated by successive heat waves.
Madbouly added in a speech today, Tuesday, that these shipments will arrive in full in the third week of next July, indicating that the government aims to stop cutting electricity during the remaining summer months.
He explained that the power outage in Egypt is the result of a crisis in providing fuel for power generation, while Egypt does not face a crisis in generating, transmitting or distributing electricity, indicating that the Egyptian government is working to stop the power outage by the end of the current year, which affects the industrial sectors. And investment.
Madbouly announced that the rest of the current week will witness an interruption of 3 hours per day, after which it will return to 2 hours starting next month
3 waves
Madbouly pointed out that this June witnessed three unprecedented heat waves compared to previous years, including the wave that struck the country during Eid al-Adha.
He explained that with the return of full work capacity in the private and government sectors after the Eid al-Adha holiday, the demand yesterday, Monday, approached 36 gigawatts, before one of the gas fields that Egypt benefits from in one of the neighboring countries went out of service for 12 hours, which created a crisis that led to an increase in the period. Power outage.
He said that these recent developments prompted the government to increase the period of load reduction during the rest of this week instead of limiting it to two days.
Madbouly added that Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla offered him an increase in Egypt’s strategic reserves of diesel by importing an additional 300,000 tons of diesel worth $180 million, which the government has begun to provide.
These quantities are scheduled to arrive at the beginning of next week, in addition to a billion dollars that Egypt needs during the summer period to reduce periods of load shedding, according to Madbouly.
Madbouly announced that the rest of the current week will witness an interruption of 3 hours per day, after which it will return to 2 hours starting next month, with measures being taken to reduce the process of reducing loads, including closing shops at 10 pm local time, with the exception of pharmacies and restaurants.
