Good morning, wonderful people, and happy almost-THURSDAY. With the work week rushing to a close, we expect a final rush of news from the Egypt Petroleum Show (Egyps), which is entering its third and final day today, capping an eventful two days that saw a slew of energy news, from fresh financing and oil field discoveries to the signing of MoUs and high-level talks.

Yesterday’s highlights: Israeli Energy and Water Minister Karine Elharrar pledged to increase Israel’s natural gas exports to Egypt by up to 50% by the end of February, while the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation lent us a fresh USD 800 mn for petroleum imports as part of a bigger USD 1.5 bn financing package. On the oil discovery side, Dragon Oil announced it has struck oil in the Gulf of Suez. We have more on these stories in this morning’s news well, below.

ALSO- Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad met with International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol to discuss increasing bilateral cooperation ahead of COP27, according to a ministry statement. Meanwhile, Schneider Electric and Aveva signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation to establish a digitally enabled control center to manage Oil Ministry assets and resources in the new capital, Hapi Journal reports.

The two-day EU-AU summit kicks off in Brussels tomorrow, where President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is set to meet with Prime Minister Alexander De Croo to talk diplomatic relations and regional issues. The president is also scheduled to meet Belgium’s King Phillipe and a group of Belgian business leaders.

Also on the agenda for the summit: Look for El Sisi to speak about the integration of African countries into the global economy, ramping up foreign investment across the continent, and supporting developing countries in their green transition — all of which are key action points for COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh this November.

SOUND SMART- That’s unless everyone in Brussels takes Friday off: Belgian employees will be given the option to work four days a week after the country’s government approved a new “flexible working” labor accord, Reuters reports. Employees will have the right to request a three-day weekend by working longer hours throughout the week. The UAE became the first country to implement a 4.5-day work week in January, while the UK followed its lead (kind of) with a six-month pilot of the four-day work week for 30 companies.

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who is also in Brussels for the summit, met with European Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi yesterday to discuss boosting cooperation with the EU on COP27 and Egypt’s green transition, the ministry spokesperson said in a tweet.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD- The United States had telegraphed that today is the day that Russia was to invade Ukraine — but US President Joe Biden is now telegraphing that while Russian leader Vladimir Putin can still “back away from the brink of war,” adding that there is still “plenty of room for diplomacy.”

Buden used a televised speech from the White House yesterday to issue a stark warning to Russia of the damage that any invasion of its neighbor would bring, saying “the world will not forget that Russia chose needless death and destruction.”

What happened to yesterday’s de-escalation talk? Reports that Russia had started to withdraw troops from its border have not yet been confirmed, Biden said, adding that US intelligence estimates Russia has now amassed 150k troops at the border — 50k more than previous estimates. The Russian defense ministry had signaled it would start to stand down some of its troops after completing exercises yesterday, rallying global markets after days of volatility over the crisis. Meanwhile, Ukraine appeared to blame Russia for a cyberattack that yesterday targeted some of the country’s banks and its defense ministry.

The news is everywhere, from the Financial Times, Reuters and New York Times to Bloomberg, the Associated Press, and the Washington Post.

LATER THIS WEEK-

The G20 nations’ finance ministers and central bank heads will hold their first gathering of 2022 in Jakarta tomorrow and on Friday against a dramatic backdrop of rising inflationary pressures and heightened expectations for rate hikes. Investors are betting on the fastest pace of interest rate hikes in over a decade across developed markets, which are now pricing in six Federal Reserve rate hikes this year, Bloomberg reports. Policymakers across the group of wealthy nations face a tough balancing act to curb inflation while minimizing impact on the economy. It’s all a far cry from the last time the group met in October, when everyone was still insisting that price hikes would be transitory.

CORRECTION- In an article published last week, we misidentified US environmental firm Okeanos with Okyanus, a Turkish construction company. The firm last week held talks with the government over setting up a factory for producing alternatives to plastic in partnership with Income Egypt, rather than Income International as we had originally reported. We have amended the story on our website.

*** It’s Hardhat day — your weekly briefing of all things infrastructure in Egypt: Enterprise’s industry vertical focuses each Wednesday on infrastructure, covering everything from energy, water, transportation, urban development, and as social infrastructure such as health and education.

In today’s issue: Electricity oversupply is a global problem, and Egypt is no exception. We have capacity to generate almost twice our peak consumption — and that power glut is jeopardizing the chances of meeting targets to up the proportion of renewable energy in the mix. In today’s Hardhat, we ask whether batteries could be part of the answer, following reports that the government could consider using industrial-scale batteries to store energy for when it's needed by the grid.