The Egyptian Holding Gas Company (EGAS) has re-pumped 90m cubic feet of gas on a daily basis to Misr Fertilisers Production Company’s (MOPCO) old factory and Alexandria Fertilisers factory. Gas pumping went back to normal following the completion of regular maintenance work and the provision the electricity plants’ requirements for electricity.
A source at EGAS told Daily News Egypt that the pumping of 45m cubic feet of gas daily to MOPCO’s second line was halted in order to carry out regular maintenance work.
He explained that equipment in fertiliser factories is maintained annually over a 15- to 20-day period once operations are suspended.
Helwan Fertilisers Company (HFC) is currently carrying out periodic maintenance, thus halting the pumping of 42m cubic feet of gas to the factory per day.
The source explained that letters were sent to all fertiliser factories in order to notify them of the annual maintenance work during August, with the increase of electricity plants’ consumption of natural gas.
About 205m cubic feet of gas are provided daily to the factories of Abu Qir and Talkha—subsidiaries of the public sector. The date for these factories’ annual maintenance has not yet been decided, the source said.
The daily amount of 205m cubic feet of gas pumped to Methanex has been halted in order to carry out annual maintenance work on equipment.
The source added that about 3.7bn cubic feet of gas are provided to electricity plants on a daily basis, whereas 1.25bn cubic feet of gas are being provided to houses, cars, and medium-consumption factories in August. In addition, about 400m cubic feet are pumped to high-consumption factories.
The source explained that high-consumption factories, including those manufacturing steel and fertilisers, need a daily amount of 1bn cubic feet of gas in order to operate.
It is estimated that the total amount of gas available daily is 5.35bn cubic feet. This is portioned into 4.05bn cubic feet from local production, and 1.3bn cubic feet from importing through the gasification ship and the Jordan line.
EGAS has made an agreement with the Ministry of Electricity to provide about 4.1bn cubic feet of gas per day to plants during August. The aim of the agreement is to operate units at full capacity to meet consumers’ needs.“
