Molla chairs first meeting of gas regulatory authority

CAIRO – 27 February 2018: The law regulating the gas market is supporting Egypt’s strategic goal of becoming a regional energy hub, Petroleum Minister Tarek el-Molla said in a statement on Tuesday.

He said that the law regulates gas activities in the Egyptian market and will encourage private sector investment, the matter that will help Egypt utilize its infrastructure and play a significant role in gas trade regionally and globally.

This came during the first meeting of the board of directors of the gas regulatory authority headed by Molla.

Molla said that the new authority was established under Law no. 196/2017 regulating the gas market and its executive regulations, which was issued this month.

He added that the meeting discussed the authority’s tasks that include the issuance, renewal, cancelation of gas permits and preparing the rules for using the state’s gas infrastructure, among others.

Molla said that the law’s executive regulations will allow the authority to press ahead with its work in regulating gas activities in the market in accordance with the law, adding that any entity working in the gas industry is obliged to resort to the authority to obtain an operation permit.

Egypt’s parliament passed a law last year establishing a gas regulatory authority in a bid to attract greater private sector participation in the country’s expanding gas sector.

Egypt aspires to be a regional energy hub after a string of major discoveries that are expected to make the country gas self-sufficient by the end of 2018.

Egypt has been building fuelling depots for ships along the Suez Canal and expanding its refining capacity. It has an extensive pipeline network and two idle gas liquefaction plants ready to export gas.