Delivering natural gas to houses faces difficulties: Source

CAIRO – 11 June 2017: The national project to deliver natural gas to houses is facing major difficulties that may hinder the working companies from accomplishing their mission for this year, a well-informed source at the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) said Sunday.

The companies may even fail to reach the number of housing units achieved over the past year, which amounted to 715,000 units, the source told Egypt Today.

By the end of FY 2016/2017 on June 30, it is expected that natural gas will have been delivered to not more than 600,000 housing units, he said, adding that some 550,000 units have been provided with gas so far.

The Ministry of Petroleum was targeting the distribution of gas to million housing units during FY 2016/2017, up from 715,000 a year earlier, according to statements by officials from EGAS and the Ministry.

The number of natural gas distribution contracts has seen a big decline since a demand made by the working companies to increase fees, is still under study by the Cabinet despite being submitted more than two months ago, the source said.

Meanwhile, he noted that the companies were badly harmed by the government's decision to free-float the local currency on November 3 and its negative effect on its exchange rate against the U.S. dollar, since more than 75 percent of the raw materials are imported in dollars.

The current fees to deliver natural gas to houses stand at LE 2,850 ($157) per unit, the source said.