“The Egyptian service companies’ total volume of investments reached up to $7.4 billion, thanks to recent contracts signed to hold operations in 14 different countries,” announced Eng. Sameh Fahmy, the Egyptian Minister of Petroleum.

Fahmy said that during the last 10 years, these agreements added LE448 billion to the state treasury, of which LE373 billion provided financial support to the petroleum products and reflected its impact by meeting the local demand of petroleum products at prices far less than the cost of its production.
 
The Minister highlighted that the natural gas industry is complicated facing challenges on a global level, pointing to Egypt’s participation as a main founder in the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, held in Algiers last month, which discussed the problems of the gas industry, represented in the low gas prices that “became a mystery to all the producing and exporting countries”.
 
Fahmy added that the average export prices of liquefied Egyptian gas during the period from April 2009 to March 2010 reached about $8.4 per one million BTU, compared to an average of $1.4 per one million BTU in the markets of Henry Hub in America, and an average of $30.4 per one million BTU, compared to an average of $25.4 per one million BTU in the markets of European Zeebrugge.
 
Furthermore, the average price of Egyptian gas exports during the same period through pipelines reached about $25.4 per one million BTU, he added. The natural gas export revenues contributed to a great extent in subsidizing the natural gas prices in the local market for various activities. He ended his comments by drawing attention the average price in the domestic market of $5.1 per one million BTU, the larger portion goes to the Electricity sector, which represents 55% of gas consumption. As for other intensive industries, which represent 15% of the volume of consumption, gas is sold at a cost of $3 per one million BTU.