Gobran Mohammed

CAIRO: A maritime demarcation agreement with Cyprus and Greece in the East Mediterranean, as well as an accord signed with Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea has helped Egypt save the country some $120 billion, which is the amount needed to power its electricity plants annually at current prices, according to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

Speaking at an economic conference taking place in the new administrative capital, El-Sisi said the demarcation deals had been critical to secure the energy needed by the nation.

The conference, which opened on Sunday, aims to draw up an economic roadmap for Egypt within the coming period. Senior economists, intellectuals and specialists are taking part.

The Zohr field would not have been found had the two demarcation pacts not been signed, said El-Sisi. The president’s remarks came during a forum at the event, addressed by Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly.

El-Sisi said that exploration companies would not have been able to work in those areas without the demarcation of the maritime borders.

According to the president, Eni — the Italian company in charge of gas exploration in the Zohr field off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea — had requested a five-year time frame to complete its mission.

El-Sisi said he requested a reduction of the timeline to only 18 months and promised to immediately resolve all issues involving Egypt’s maritime borders.

He said the country would have had to fork out $10 billion a month or $120 billion every year at current prices to ensure the nation’s power stations kept running.

“Praise to God that we could discover the Zohr field,” said the president. Even at the old gas prices, it would have cost $2 billion a month to keep the power stations going, which the nation did not have in its coffers, he added.

The Zohr field is believed to be the largest-ever gas discovery in Egypt and the Mediterranean. Zohr is located within the Shorouk concession, around 190 kilometers north of the city of Port Said.

According to the president, authorization of land for a refinery project was given in just two hours when the licensing process would typically take two to three years.

During his speech at the opening session of the conference, Madbouly said the economic conference was taking place in the midst of a global crisis that the countries of the world had not witnessed since the Second World War.

All developed, economically powerful governments and growing nations were fighting for stability and survival, he said.