The Egyptian government is considering an ambitious plan to expand the public and private roles in funding oil projects. Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmi said his ministry would reassess the country's traditional management policies on all oil and natural gas pipelines to increase their economic efficiency.
Fahmi said the new strategy would encourage more agreements with foreign firms to operate new natural gas pipelines for export, especially since the big discoveries in the deep waters of the Mediterranean.
The strategy of the Egyptian oil changed at the end of the last decade when a number of Egyptian private sector companies joined in investmenting and financing for the first time, saving the government the costs of building new pipelines.
"The current climate demands more investments to modernize maintenance operations and provide new management for various oil projects," said Fahmi. He also wants ad-hoc companies, using state of-the-art technology, to be set up to manage major developments in the oil industry.
The global trend is to maximize projects by cutting costs, improving the performance of pipelines with minimum cost, making new agreements for exchanging services for these pipelines, and developing advanced monitoring systems.
The minister said Egypt's natural gas reserves - estimated at 45 trillion cubic meters - can satisfy local needs for 100 years. "Egypt has already received serious offers to set up two large-scale petrochemical projects," he added. – (Albawaba-MEBG)
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
