Thousands of workers from several oil and gas companies are on strike, protesting in front of the Ministry of Petroleum, in Nasr City. The workers had several economic and political demands that include a halt to abusive management practices in terms of sackings, the reinstatement of the sacked workers, raising salaries that roughly average on LE400, establishing an independent union, impeaching the corrupt minister Sameh Fahmy, and stopping gas exports to Israel.
Muhammad investigates the misinformation and the corrupt web of Egyptian clients involved in the gas deal with Israel.
From the Daily News Egypt:
Bowing to pressure from the opposition, Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy announced Sunday that the government will revise its natural gas export prices and will not sign new exportation contracts until the end of 2010.
Since the latest energy price hikes kicked-in this year, experts and opposition members have been calling on Fahmy to amend the prices on all existing gas contracts, saying Egypt’s rate is below the current international market prices.
Several opposition parties have also opposed the idea of exporting gas to Israel as a matter of principle.
“We will review prices of natural gas in all agreements without any exception,” Fahmy said on Sunday.
Although in his statements the minister did not specifically focus on the gas agreement with Israel, government newspapers reported that Sunday’s PA session was devoted to debating this specific deal.
According to Abdallah Helmy, coordinator of the popular campaign to prevent Egyptian gas exports, who was present at the session, the government has reached a consensus that “we don’t have enough gas to sign any new export deals.”
