Sources at the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Mineral Resources told Al Masry Al Youm that that Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources informed the Electricity Ministry of the possibility to totally rely on natural gas to run power plants instead of using mazut, due to the natural gas surplus and the new giant natural gas discoveries.

The Ministry of Electricity had previously sent a letter to the Ministry of Petroleum enquiring about the possibility to pump additional natural gas to electricity generating power plant to replace mazut, which damages water boilers.

The Ministry of Petroleum pointed out that it has gas network to help deliver gas to all power plant according to the demands agreed upon in the agreement.

Power plants were working lately with mazut as an alternative fuel because gas was not present with more than 25%.

In related news, the Ministry of Petroleum was aiming to pump natural gas to 1m households across 26 governorates during the next Financial Year (FY) 2017-2018 at a cost of EGP 4.2b.