After the gas crisis in Europe, Italy turns to Egypt for a massive project

The Egyptian Ministry of Energy has received an offer from Italy to implement a joint project to connect the power grids of the two countries with an investment of $2.8 billion.

One source told Bloomberg that the offer made by Italy to officials of the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, which is part of the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity, included the signing of a memorandum of understanding to carry out studies on an electrical interconnection project between the two countries, provided that Italy bears the costs of consultations and submission of a feasibility study of the project to the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity before a decision is made to sign the Project Implementation Agreement.

According to the initial discussions and the proposal submitted by Italy, the electrical capacity to be exchanged between Egypt and Italy is estimated to be in the range of 2,500 to 3,000 megawatts, which includes a commitment to cover costs from Italian banks and European financial agencies.

The talks come at a time when Europe is suffering from a severe energy crisis it hasn’t seen in years, due to shortages in gas supplies resulting from the aftermath of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and a gas price hike that is pushing Europeans to look for other alternatives. to provide electricity, including expanding renewable energy projects and interconnecting electricity networks. With other countries, even one country on the continent has increased its dependence on coal to avoid power outages.

Prices for gas in Europe, which is used to run electricity generators, rose to record levels in the summer of 2022 and remained high, about double the five-year average during this period of the year.

Source: Bloomberg.