Sudan seeks to buy natural gas from Egypt

January 9, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – Egypt has received a formal request from Sudan to ink a gas supply deal, according to a newspaper report.

The Egyptian petroleum minister Sameh Fahmy told the Al-Youm Al-Sabe’ online news portal that his government is considering supplying its southern neighbor with natural gas to meet its growing energy demand.

Fahmy suggested that Sudan’s interest came after the Egyptian natural gas pipeline extended to reach Aswan city close to the Southern borders.

However, Cairo is still considering whether or not to heed to the request in light of a decision it took last year not to sign any new gas export contracts until 2010 in order to meet rising local demand.

The country’s proven natural gas reserves rose to around 77.2 trillion cubic feet in the 2008/09 fiscal year.

Egypt is a significant natural gas exporter and currently exports 200-250 million cfd of natural gas to Jordan, its main export market, according to Egypt’s state-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS).

Oil producing Sudan’s rising energy demand has pushed it to consider importing electricity from neighboring countries including Ethiopia as well as creating wind energy farms.

(ST)