Okay, what’s really going on with the Natural Gas Act? The Egyptian Council of State (Maglis El Dowla) will complete its review of the Natural Gas Act on Wednesday of next week and plans to send it to House of Representatives the next day, sources from the council’s legislative committee tell Al Borsa. This contradicts reports by AMAY which we noted earlier this month that the law was already with the House and has been passed on to the House Energy Committee for review. These new reports mean that the law, which would deregulate the natural gas industry and see the state step back to become the market regulator and provider of pipelines, has been sitting with the State Council for well over a year.

The Maglis will also send the Tenders and Auctions Act to the House next week. The bill would allow the government to withhold advance payments to encourage project-financing through the private sector.