Page 11 - AfrElec Week 09 2022

AfrElec GAS POWER AfrElec

EGAS aims to increase gas and

LNG exports to 4mn tonnes in H1

EGYPT’S state-owned Natural Gas Holding cubic metres) per day – out of a total daily out-
EGYPT Company (EGAS) intends to increase natu- put of between 6.7 and 6.9 bcf (190-195 mcm)
ral and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to – leaving ample room for exports. EGAS has set
4mn tonnes during the first half of 2022, com- an export target of 7.5mn tonnes for the current
pared with between 3.3mn and 3.5mn tonnes fiscal year, 2021/2022, which ends in June 2022.
in the preceding half-year (July-December The electricity sector is at the forefront of nat-
2021), Amwal Al Ghad newspaper reports. The ural gas consuming sectors, accounting for the
increase will be fuelled by higher gas output from bulk (60%) of domestic consumption, followed
offshore Mediterranean fields, by the industrial sector at around 22%, with the
Natural gas exports have become a key source petrochemicals and gas-derivatives sector trail-
of foreign currency for Egypt over the past year ing as a distant third with about 11%. The house-
as energy prices skyrocketed. Their role has been hold and transportation sector combined use a
amplified over the past week, as Egypt’s current mere 6% of national production.
account faces a double shock from higher wheat Natural gas produced in Egypt mostly comes
prices and the loss of their largest sources of from deep offshore fields, with the El Zohr field
inbound tourists – Ukraine and Russia – follow- – the largest discovery ever made in the Medi-
ing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. terranean basin, operated by Italy’s Eni – taking
Egypt’s current domestic consumption of the lead.™
natural gas is around 6bn cubic feet (170mn
ECOWAS launches $568mn

‘North Backbone Project’ to

supply electricity from Nigeria

WEST AFRICA THE ECOWAS ‘North Backbone Project’ – a the 330-kW transmission line.
$568mn project to supply electricity from Nige- The flagship project complements two simi-
ria to Niger, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo – has lar ECOWAS projects: the OMVG (Senegal, The
officially launched. The West African bloc pro- Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau) with the con-
ject aims at setting up a 330-kW interconnection struction of a 1,700-km line, and the CLSG (Cote
line by the end of 2024. d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea), with
The Regional Electricity Interconnection a total of 1,300 km in interconnection lines, each
Project is being funded by the World Bank, the with a rural electrification component.
African Development Bank (AfDB), the French The completion of these three projects will
Development Agency and the European Union result in the interconnection of all 14 countries
with consideration from Nigeria. of the ECOWAS region, which the bloc called a
The project launched in Niger, whose favourable situation for the effective implemen-
energy minister described North Backbone as tation of the regional electricity market launched
a far-reaching regional project that will extend by the West African regional organisation in
access to electricity to 611 communities along 2018.™

Week 09 03•March•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11