Egypt’s Orascom Construction this week signed a contract for construction of the 650MW capacity Walideya steam turbine power plant at Assiut, 320km south of Cairo in the Nile Valley. The company says the contract is worth “approximately $100mn.”
The choice of a steam turbine rather than a more efficient gas turbine will enable the plant to burn fuel oil when gas is in short supply. However, generator EEHC’s need to keep its fuel options open suggests the end of Egypt’s gas supply crunch is not yet in sight, despite rising output.Reduced foreign investment in the Egyptian upstream in recent years caused gas output to bottom out at 3.89bn cfd in early 2016. Egypt has since improved terms for gas producers and new fields have been started up, bringing output to 5.22bn cfd in May, the highest since October 2013 (MEES, 7 July). (CONTINUED - 655 WORDS)
