Cargas and Gastec, representing the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, have signed contracts worth €11.3 million (EGP 200M) to finance the national programme to convert cars to run on natural gas.

The contracts were signed with the Egyptian Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA), which comes within the framework of the presidential initiative to expand the use of natural gas as a fuel for cars.

The Egyptian government said that the contracts are in line with the presidential directives under which the agency has allocated EGP 1.2 billion (€68M) to convert 150,000 vehicles within three years.

The efforts to reduce Egypt’s dependency on oil have been underway for a while. The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources had plans to increase the number of CNG stations from 306 to 1,000 by the end of the year, according to supplier Galileo Technologies.

Galileo Technologies signed various contracts to supply over 500 CNG dispensers to NGVC and GASTEC earlier in 2021.

"The equipment will be installed in new CNG stations throughout Egypt. GASTEC will install 271 dispensers and 100 compressor packages, while NGVC will install 229 dispensers and 100 compressor packages. We are convinced that our plug-and-play design equipment is the right solution for the rapid deployment and we are very grateful for the trust that GASTEC and NGVC have placed in Galileo," said Gabriel Lorenzi, Galileo Technologies.

Egyptian operator Gastec has also partnered with Eni to develop multi-energy stations across the country. The City of Cairo welcomed its first integrated multi-energy station supplying CNG, liquid fuels and EV charging.

Shifting from conventional fuel to natural gas is seen as an effective measure to avoid liquid fuel shortages caused by diplomatic conflicts and international affairs.