CAIRO, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said Tuesday that his country could phase out the ongoing summer power cuts by the third week of July should the generation fuel shortage be resolved.
In a televised press conference, Madbouly indicated that Egypt has no problem producing power but facing a disruption in fuel supply for generation, and the government has taken proactive measures to end the interruption as soon as possible.
He said a shipment of 300,000 tons of mazut would be received next week as an urgent supply to power plants, and the country would need to import 1.18 billion U.S. dollars worth of mazut and natural gas in total to discontinue the rationing.
Egypt has enacted a load-shedding plan to ensure the safe operation of the grid and generation facilities this summer. Madbouly noted that the government would tune down the duration of power cuts from three hours daily, which has been in place since the start of this week, to two hours each day next week.
The press conference came a day after the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Energy and the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said increasing heatwaves had necessitated extending the power cut duration from two hours per day to three hours. ■