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Tuesday, 3 January 2023

House signs off on green hydrogen, infrastructure, oil exploration bills

MPs greenlight port development, oil exploration + green hydrogen bills: MPs signed off on several bills yesterday, including legislation paving the way for the government to bring in private companies to develop container terminals and Eni to explore for oil in the Western Desert. Among the bills approved yesterday:

#1- Ports: Two bills that would allow the government to grant a concession to a consortium of foreign and local companies to develop two container terminals at the ports of Ain Sokhna and Dekheila. Hutchison Ports last year signed initial agreements with the government to build new container terminals at the two ports alongside COSCO, CMA CMG, and MSC. The container terminals would be built on a build, operate, transfer (BOT) basis, said Alaa Abed, head of the House Transport Committee.

#2- Oil exploration: A bill to allow oil exploration by the Egyptian General Petroleum Company (EGPC) and Eni’s local subsidiary in the Western Desert.

#3- Hydrogen: A presidential decree approving a EUR 500k grant agreement from the French Development Agency (AFD) to develop our green hydrogen sector.

#4- Railways: Amendments to a 2019 agreement that would see the Hungarian Export-Import Bank supply 1.4k railcars to Egypt.

AND- Tax breaks inch closer for the builders of Dabaa: The House Energy Committee gave its final approval to amendments to the law regulating the Nuclear Power Plants Authority (NPPA), which would fully exempt from taxes all parties involved in building and operating nuclear projects. The legislation comes to speed up the implementation of Rosatom-built Dabaa, the country’s first nuclear plant.

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