New Egyptian petroleum strategy in the new millennium
Egypt, Economics, 8/30/2000

During the forthcoming ten years, Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy, said, his ministry will implement an ambitious plan to expand the roles of the Egyptian and foreign private sectors in funding oil projects nationwide.

Elaborating, he said his ministry will reassess th country's old management policies of all oil and natural gas pipelines in order to increase their economic efficiency.

Fahmy indicated that the new strategy will encourage more agreements with foreign firms to operate new natural gas pipelines for exportation particularly after the great discoveries that have been made in the deep waters of the Mediterranean.

The strategy of the Egyptian oil sector has definitely changed at the end of the last millennium with the participation of a number of Egyptian private sector companies in investments and financing for the first time, without burdening the government with costs of constructing new pipelines.

An example would be gas distribution companies in the new cities, that have secured their financing and investment, and the Middle East Oil Tankage and Pipelines Company MIDTAP which constructs a pipeline for crude oil and two products pipelines at its own expenses under the BLT (Build, Lease, Transfer) system without burdening the government with any additional costs.

Additionally, it constructs export facilities that include a new pier at "El-Dekheila" Port, thus pushing the wheel of development to the maximum in accordance with the planned-time span.

The new global trend generally tends to maximize projects through cutting costs, improve the performance of pipelines with minimum costs, sign agreements for exchanging services for these pipelines using the latest and most technologically developed monitoring systems.

According to petroleum officials, the strategy for the transportation of hydrocarbons in developing countries in the new millennium could be defined by the following : The increase in number of new non-state-owned companies in the fields of pipelines construction, operation and maintenance while improving maintenance procedures, management and operation of pipelines besides the utilization of modern scientific methods.

Signing mutual service agreements for exploiting pipelines and sharing in them.

The construction of strategic pipelines with the aim of exporting or importing natural gas and crude oil.

"In few words, the current climate demands more investments to modernize maintenance operations and provide new management for various oil projects", said Fahmy. He also recommended that ad-hoc companies, using state of-the-art technology, should be set up to manage these major developments in the oil industry.

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