Gas to Jordan

THE FIRST phase of the gas pipeline network extending from Egypt to a number of Arab and European countries was inaugurated in the Jordanian city of Aqaba last week. Aqaba Thermal Power Station will start using Egyptian gas to generate power within a few weeks and this will be the first time for Egypt to export natural gas.

The gas will be transported to the station via a 15-kilometre underwater pipeline.

An Egyptian consortium comprising the Egyptian Holding Company for Natural Gas, Petrojet, Enppi and Gasco won a tender to implement the second phase of the project which will see an extension of the pipeline through Jordan. The pipeline will run from the southern city of Aqaba to Al-Reheb, and supply power stations with environmentally-friendly fuel. There are plans to extend the pipeline by 2006 to Syria and Lebanon, before running through Turkey, Cyprus and then to European countries.

The second phase will be implemented according to the Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) system and ownership will be transferred to the Jordanian government after 30 years.

Egypt's reserves of gas are estimated at more than 56 trillion cubic feet.

More Coke

THE COCA-COLA Bottling Company (CCBC) of Egypt will be investing some LE70 million in Egypt this year. The sum, which will be used to set up new production lines and expand existing facilities, is part of the company's plans to grow during the next three years. The company has already invested some LE350 million in Egypt.

During a recent meeting with the press, the company's managers denied that calls for boycotting US products have affected their position in the market. However, according to Amr El-Koosy, media and government affairs manager of Coca- Cola Egypt, CCBC's mother company, the growth of the market has not been equivalent to that of the sums invested by the company.

El-Koosy stressed that only the mother company's headquarters are based in the US and that they are an Egyptian joint venture company employing approximately 8,000 Egyptians. Sixty-six per cent of the company is owned by brothers Shaher Abdel-Haq and Abdel-Gelil Abdel- Haq. The remaining 34 per cent is owned by shareholders and is traded on the international stock market.

The company boasts nine bottling plants, 27 storage units and a concentrates factory which exports $160 million worth of concentrates to Coca-Cola plants in North Africa. The Egyptian concentrates factory is one of only 26 worldwide.