Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla confirmed that more than 1,450 villages in the governorates of the country will benefit from the natural gas delivery projects implemented by the petroleum sector within the first phase of the Haya Karima (‘Decent Life’) initiative to develop Egyptian rural villages launched by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

El Molla explained that within the framework of these projects the delivery of natural gas to 120 villages has been completed, providing this civil service to about 413,000 households within the scope of these villages. This is in addition to the implementation of the ground networks necessary to connect about 530 other villages in preparation to start pumping natural gas to their homes is underway. As soon as the networks are completed, this will bring the number of villages of the initiative benefiting from natural gas to 650 villages.

The Minister indicated the readiness of the petroleum sector to start implementing projects to deliver natural gas to about 783 other villages as soon as the sewage connections to these villages are completed, allowing the start of extending natural gas networks.

El Molla added that the political leadership emphasized the priority of delivering natural gas to villages to ensure that people in the Egyptian countryside benefit from a clean and inexpensive civil service instead of the burdens of butane cylinders. This is in line with the state’s vision to improve the standards of living through this national initiative.

Within the framework of the initiative, the petroleum sector launched natural gas for the first time in the village of Al Qaraan in Girga, Sohag, after the Modern Gas Company completed the implementation of the project to deliver natural gas to the village, including delivery networks and infrastructure. Natural gas services have been made available to citizens in the village to be delivered to about 1,500 households and start contracting for delivery to take advantage of this distinguished service and the simplified procedures to pay the delivery cost in installments on the consumption bill.

Thus, there will be 17 villages in Sohag that benefit from natural gas within the initiative of Haya Karima, and the number of beneficiary villages will increase successively with the completion of the projects.