“Noise without flour” is a saying that confirms the reality of the Egyptian government's performance in the energy sector, as there is no day that passes until there is news of the discovery of new wells, the signing of an agreement, or the opening of projects related to natural gas. However, the energy situation in Egypt has not improved, for the citizen. .

The improvement in the performance of the electricity production stations was achieved through foreign loans and the implementation of these stations by foreign companies, in addition to the fact that the fuel used in energy production is in large part due to import, and is not fully covered by the domestic production of oil and gas.

According to the data of the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum, Egypt has achieved an unprecedented increase in natural gas production during the past five years, as the average daily production reached 4 billion cubic feet per day in 2015, and increased to 7.1 billion cubic feet per day in September 2018, which is what He called on the government at the time to declare Egypt self-sufficient in natural gas.

On September 16, 2020, the Italian company Eni announced a large discovery of natural gas in Egypt, in the Greater Norse region in the Mediterranean, and according to the company's press release, the quantities of natural gas for the Greater Norse region, which includes more than one natural gas well, will reach about 4 trillion. Cubic feet, and owns the franchise right in the Abu Madi area, in which the Great Norse wells are located, each of the Italian company Eni with 75%, and the British company with 25%.

It is striking that the announcement of natural gas discoveries in Egypt does not stop, by Eni and the British company, as there may be many wells, but they are in the same region, which calls into question the new discovery processes, and is a kind of companies marketing themselves, as well as marketing to the Egyptian system, that there are There are achievements that would transfer Egypt to the ranks of energy producing and exporting countries in large quantities, or work to change the economic situation of Egypt, and turn it into rich oil countries.

Egypt has witnessed in the last period the continued rise in the price of electricity at home and the increase in the cost of obtaining natural gas fuel (Reuters)

Exorbitant bills

According to the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum, self-sufficiency in natural gas was achieved in September 2018, and after two years of this achievement, the citizen did not find any positive effect for that, so the electricity bills, or the consumption bills of all petroleum products, are still exorbitant and inflaming the appearance of citizens, especially Their incomes are almost constant.

According to the rules of supply and demand, energy consumption in Egypt from oil and natural gas has been declining over a year during the period “May 2019 - May 2020 ″, according to the informational bulletin of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics for July 2020, This means that there is a surplus, and prices should decrease in relation to the general market as a result of an increase in supply over demand, or an increase in production over consumption, whether consumption is for industry or agriculture, or for household consumption, or transportation.

However, it is noticed that Egypt has witnessed, during the last period, the continuous increase in electricity prices in homes, and the complaints of factory owners about the high cost of obtaining natural gas fuel, which makes them lose the advantage of the low cost of their products in the local and international markets.

In May 2019, Egypt's production of oil and gas was about 7 million tons per month on average, while consumption was about 6.5 million tons, but in May 2020 we find that Egypt's production of fuel is about 6.2 million tons, while consumption is 5.7 million tons. .

There is no doubt that the indications of the decline in energy consumption in Egypt are due to the stagnation that the Egyptian non-oil economy has been suffering from over the years, and on the other hand, the decrease in consumption is due to the high energy bills in light of the inability of Egyptian products to compete with their foreign counterparts.

Where do the gas revenues go?

The bewildering matter is that despite the numerous discoveries of natural gas, and the announcement of large quantities of production, they have no effect on the life of the Egyptian citizen. On the level of energy prices, the citizen pays bills whose value increases in short periods.

In terms of public life and the level of other services - assuming that the Egyptian system uses gas revenues to provide better services in the fields of education, health and infrastructure - reality reveals the exact opposite, and the best evidence was what happened in the Corona crisis, where citizens used to pay the price of swabs to reveal the extent Are they infected with the virus or not, and there is a large shortage of medical supplies inside public hospitals.

In addition to the burdens of living that increase every day, and the high government fees for the services it provides to citizens, and what is worse is that the public debt is increasing dramatically, and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi does not find any objection in his announcement of continuing the policy of borrowing during the coming period.

If the citizen does not enjoy natural gas revenues in the form of lower fuel prices, does not feel an improvement in the level of public services, and does not feel supported by government goods and services, and at the same time the government is expanding domestic and foreign borrowing, then where have the natural gas export revenues gone, and what do the advertisements mean For new discoveries of natural gas for a citizen?

Despite the multiplicity of discoveries in the energy sector and the increase in production, the Egyptian citizen is still burdened with many bills and taxes (Reuters)

Supporting the foreign citizen

The shock was great to the Egyptians during the past days, after Ayman Suleiman, Executive Director of the Egyptian Sovereign Fund, announced that they negotiated the sale of electricity produced in Egypt to European and African countries at a price of 2.4 US cents per kilowatt, which is equivalent to the prices of the first bracket for consumption in Egypt, or less, which means that Egypt supports the foreign citizen, while the government’s policy is for the citizen to pay the international price for his electricity consumption in Egypt.

It is a policy that requires accountability, but the special law by which the sovereign fund was issued protected its decisions from being challenged before any court or supervisory authority, and it was given absolute powers to the President of the Republic, as the fund falls under his supervision.

It seems that through the sovereign fund law, Sisi wanted to avoid accountability for corruption in the natural gas sector, as happened during the Mubarak era, when the late Ambassador Ibrahim Yousry, along with a group of politicians, was keen to institute a lawsuit against corruption in the gas deal with Israel.

Energy balance deficit

In light of the announcement of the major discoveries - over the past five years during Sisi’s reign - of natural gas in Egypt, and the claim of self-sufficiency, the trade balance in the energy sector in Egypt was expected to improve, but the numbers reflected in the balance of payments data for the period from July 2019 - March 2020 “reveals a deficit, as oil exports for that period amounted to about $ 7.3 billion, while imports amounted to $ 8.1 billion, meaning that the deficit amounted to about $ 800 million.

If we exclude the foreign partner’s share from the value of Egyptian oil exports, the deficit will be much greater than that value, especially since the foreign partner’s share in the fields discovered during Sisi’s era is high, reaching 40%.

In conclusion, it can be said that the natural gas file in Egypt is like a black box, lacking transparency, while the Sisi government heralded self-sufficiency after the discovery of the Zohr field, and concluded an agreement to import gas from Israel, and the gas imported from Tel Aviv was not for export, as Sisi claimed. It is for domestic consumption, as Israeli officials themselves declared.