Fahmi: Natural gas available in 2 million homes

Egypt's Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy said yesterday there is a plan to supply about 6 million housing units with natural gas nationwide throughout the coming 20 years with a total cost valued at LE 30 billion.

"Natural gas has been made avaliable to 2 million housing units over the past 25 years,."

Fahmy revealed the figures, adding that gas had been extended to two million units over the past five years alone.

Fahmy made the statement during the signing ceremony of a contract between the Commercial International Bank and the AL-Watany Bank for Development to finance a project extending natural gas to housing units in Zagazig via the National Gas Company (Nagas).

Fahmy urged making the best use of the investments offered by the national banks for financing oil, natural gas and petrochemical projects, as well as benefiting from a strong financial sector that integrates with a strong oil, sector.

Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), Farouk al-Okda who attended the signing ceremony, lauded the successful examples of the banks contribution to new oil projects.

Natgas Chairman, Reda Genina said that the project is the fourth in the plan to extend natural gas to the governorate of Sharqia, covering about 220.000 housing units.