Major nuclear deal
Russia and Egypt have agreed to cooperate on nuclear energy projects worth an estimated $2 billion. Under the accord, Egypt would examine Russian offers to supply the nuclear energy reactor it plans to tender for international offers. “The number of potential partners is limited; primarily Russia and three or four other countries,” Foreign Trade Minister Mohammed Rasheed said. Officials said the tender for the first nuclear power plant was expected to be decided in 2009. The facility would begin operations in 2017. Under the accord, Russia would be allowed to build nuclear facilities, train Egyptian personnel and supply nuclear fuel to Cairo. The accord should be supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Fifteen international and local firms are already bidding for a tender to choose the consultancy house for Egypt’s first nuclear station.
19 wells
The UAE Dana Gas will drill 19 new wells—15 exploration wells and four development wells—in Egypt this year. Cesting $170 million to drill, the wells are located at the Komombo concession in Upper Egypt and two concessions in the Nile Delta. The wells could potentially double Egypt’s gas reserves.
Toll up
Ships transiting the Suez Canal are now paying higher tolls. The new rates were implemented last week and involve a 4-14 per cent rise according to the ship size and type, a Suez Canal Authority spokesman said. It had been planned that the toll rise would be effective last January, but was delayed until 1 April due to tough international market conditions.
Orascom Hotels in Zurich
Egyptian billionaire Samih Sawiris plans to sell shares in his hotel business in Switzerland, where he won approval last year to invest $1 billion in a tourism resort in Andermatt that will cover an area the size of 200 football fields and will be the country’s biggest foreign property project. Shareholders in Orascom Hotels and Development, Egypt’s largest publicly traded hotel company, will be offered 1 share of Orascom Development Holding AG, a newly created holding company based in Altdorf, Switzerland, for every 10 shares they own. The holding company will also list in Cairo and may sell new stock when listing its shares on the SWX Swiss Exchange next May.
Water management
Egypt and Japan signed an agreement earlier this month on cooperation in water management. The Japanese Aid and Cooperation Agency (JICA) will accordingly extend to Egypt a grant of LE35 million to carry out the second phase of a project on improving water management. The project will start next June and extend over four years, and will be implemented in seven regions in Fayoum, and Minya as well as in Eastern, Central and Western Delta.
Warrior goddess
A large statue of the pahraoh Amenhotep III has been discovered by an Egyptian-German archeological mission in Luxor, as well as 100 pieces of another statue of the same pharaoh, Luxor Antiquities Director Mansour Borayek said. The mission also unearthed two heads of Sphinx in addition to seven statues of goddess Sekhmet on the western bank in Luxor, he added.
Sekhmet, who was depicted as a lioness, was the warrior goddess of Upper Egypt. Amenhotep III ruled Egypt from 1403 to 1366BC.