Egyptian fertilizer producers have been notified of a new 33 percent reduction in their natural gas supplies, a company statement and industry officials said on Sunday, as the country seeks to curb the need for expensive liquefied natural gas imports, Reuters reported. Misr Fertilizers Production Company, known as MOPCO, said it had been told of the reduction, which follows an earlier 20 percent cut to gas supplies for fertilizer plants, and said operations are being managed in line with the available gas volumes, according to its filing to the Egyptian Exchange summarised by Egypt Oil & Gas.
EnterpriseAM Egypt, reporting from the same bourse filings, named Abu Qir Fertilizers, MOPCO and Egyptian Fertilizers among the producers whose curtailment was raised from 20 percent to 33 percent, and noted that Egyptian Chemical Industries, known as Kima, has so far confirmed only the initial 20 percent cut in its latest disclosure. When the earlier cut was announced, MOPCO and Abu Qir said they would manage production in line with available gas, and Abu Qir said it had contingency plans for managing inventory and rescheduling maintenance. The Petroleum Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters said.
The rationing has spread beyond fertilizer. The Oil Ministry has notified Ezz Steel, Egypt’s largest steelmaker, of a 30 percent gas supply reduction amounting to roughly 30 million cubic feet a day, EnterpriseAM reported, citing Asharq Business and an unnamed government official. The ministry did not clarify an end date for the reduction.
The cuts are the industrial side of the import bill reported on this site on Sunday. Egypt relies on domestic gas and increasingly on imported LNG for power generation, but domestic output has struggled to keep pace with rising demand and the Iran war has tightened global LNG markets. The ministry budgeted about 10.1 billion dollars for LNG in the 2026/27 financial year, prices have run above its estimates, and it had spent 5.8 billion dollars by October 6. The state has also stepped up cheaper fuel oil imports, with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation buying six cargoes of high-sulphur fuel oil for delivery in November and December.