Egypt, Norway’s Scatec Sign MOU on Green Ammonia Project

Shipping containers pass through the Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt October 5, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Shipping containers pass through the Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt October 5, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
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Egypt, Norway’s Scatec Sign MOU on Green Ammonia Project

Shipping containers pass through the Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt October 5, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Shipping containers pass through the Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt October 5, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Egypt has signed a memorandum of understanding for a $5 billion project with Norway’s Scatec (SCATC.OL) to build its first green ammonia plant in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, the cabinet said on Thursday.

The green ammonia plant near the Red Sea port and industrial zone of Ain Sokhna would have production capacity of one million tons annually with the potential to expand to three million tons, the cabinet statement said.

The deal was agreed between Scatec, the Suez Canal Economic Zone, Egypt's Sovereign Fund and its Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy.

Scatec had signed an MOU with Egypt in December to study the development of a green ammonia plant that would be fueled by green hydrogen produced by renewable power.

The plant would be expected to start production in 2025, and the green ammonia would mainly be exported to European and Asian markets where demand for clean ammonia is growing rapidly, a joint statement issued by Scatec on Thursday said.

Egypt will host the COP27 climate conference in November and is pushing to develop green energy projects, including for the production of green hydrogen.

Separately, Egypt's annual urban consumer price inflation surged to its highest in nearly three years in February, driven by a sharp increase in food prices, figures from the state statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Thursday.

Inflation rose to a higher-than-expected 8.8% year on year from 7.3% in January, putting it near the upper limit of the central bank's 5-9% target range and indicating that the bank's monetary policy committee may increase interest rates when it meets on March 24.

February's inflation figure was the highest since June 2019.

Food prices rose 4.6% month on month in February, with vegetable prices jumping 17.2%.

Prices were pushed upwards by an increase in raw material and commodity prices worldwide that has been going on since the beginning of 2021, said Radwa El-Swaify of Pharos Securities Brokerage.

"Companies at the end of 2020 had stocked up on cheap inventory and were using it during 2021. So once this cheap stock started to deplete and they were buying at the higher prices, they started to become more expressive in terms of their own price increases,” she said.



Egypt Hosts Hamas in New Gaza Ceasefire Push, Looting Halts Aid

Egyptian workers are seen in front of the new headquarters of Egypt's parliament in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt June 21, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
Egyptian workers are seen in front of the new headquarters of Egypt's parliament in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt June 21, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
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Egypt Hosts Hamas in New Gaza Ceasefire Push, Looting Halts Aid

Egyptian workers are seen in front of the new headquarters of Egypt's parliament in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt June 21, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
Egyptian workers are seen in front of the new headquarters of Egypt's parliament in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) east of Cairo, Egypt June 21, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo

Hamas leaders held talks with Egyptian security officials on Sunday in a fresh push for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, two Hamas sources said, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene his security cabinet on the matter, two Israeli officials said.

The Hamas visit to Cairo was the first since the United States announced on Wednesday it would revive efforts in collaboration with Qatar, Egypt and Türkiye to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza, that would include a hostage deal.

White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said he thought the chances of a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza were now more likely.

"(Hamas) are isolated. Hezbollah is no longer fighting with them, and their backers in Iran and elsewhere are preoccupied with other conflicts," he told CNN on Sunday, Reuters reported.

"So I think we may have a chance to make progress, but I'm not going to predict exactly when it will happen ... we've come so close so many times and not gotten across the finish line."

Palestinians say Israel's operations on the northern edge of the enclave are part of a plan to clear people out through forced evacuations and bombardments to create a buffer zone. The Israeli military strongly denies this and says it is fighting against Hamas.

The military says it has killed hundreds of Hamas militants in that part of Gaza as it fights to stop the faction regrouping. It has also lost around 30 soldiers there in combat with Hamas fighters over the past two months, a relatively high death toll.