The 10 Biggest Agreements Made at EEDC

The only thing we can say with any certainty is that no one knows for sure how successful Egypt’s Economic Development Conference truly was. Agreements reached at this conference vary in details depending on which news outlet you read, or even which ministers you trust.

On Sunday, Egyptian Minister of Investment, Ashraf Salman, announced at a press conference that Egypt has signed deals worth a total of $38.2 billion ($33 billion in investment deals with European aid and grants totaling $5 billion), adding that there is potential deals worth $92 billion to be finalised. However, if you believe Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb then Egypt signed deals worth $36 billion, and contributions worth $72.5 billion were pledged over the course of the conference. Meanwhile, President Sisi said that Egypt' needs $200 - $300 billion "so there is real hope."

As always in Egypt, it is hard to find solid numbers, especially when ministers contradict one another not by millions but billions. So in attempt to give our readers an idea what happened this weekend, we have decided to compile the 10 biggest deals that made waves this weekend.

BP Invests $12 billion

On Saturday British Petroleum signed a deal worth $12 billion over four years which promises to deliver five trillion cubic feet of gas resources and 55 million barrels of condensates in the West Nile Delta. Production is expected to begin in 2017 and will be providing gas produced from two offshore rigs in North Alexandria and West Mediterranean deep water. The news was confirmed with the release of a joint statement from the company and the government on Saturday.

Tharwa Investments Sign MoH Worth $11 billion

According to CPIFinancial.net and Mada Masr, Tharwa investments, a parent company of Four Winds Investments, have signed a memorandum of understanding to build the world’s largest single-site coal-fired power plant, generating 6,000 Megawatts at a building cost of $11 billion.

ACWA Power to Invest $10-13 Billion

According to Mada Masr, Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker said on the sidelines of the EEDC that Egypt will sign a MOU with Saudi’s ACWA Power to build a $3 billion power plants, in partnership with UAE’s Masdar, in the Red Sea. The proposed plan is to generate almost 1,500 megawatts from solar and 500 megawatts from wind, however other sites have suggested the same deal could reach up to 6$ billion. At the same time it is being reported that ACWA also plans to build a coal power plant, in a separated deal costing about $7 billion with production capacity of 4,000 megawatts.

Siemens Agrees to Invest $10.5 billion

German industrial giant Siemens agreed to invest $10.5 billion ($10 billion euros) in Egypt on Saturday, with projects to build power plants that will boost the country's electricity generation capacity by up to a third. Talking to the Associated Press, after negotiating with Sisi, Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser says "We've been doing business here for over 110 years so we've seen crisis come and go... It's not about (us) coming and going." The binding agreement is believed to be worth $4.6 billion that includes the building of a new 4.4 gigawatt power plant in southern Egypt, a project to generate 2.2 giga watts of wind power and a new wind rotor blade factory. The rest of the promised investment comes as a memorandum of understanding to build other plants and substations over the coming five years.

Saudi Arabia, United Arab of Emirates, Kuwait and Oman Pledge $12.5 billion

According to officials from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab of Emirates, and Kuwait have each pledged $4 billion of investments to back the Egyptian economy. Saudi Arabia said it would deposit one billion (USD) in the Central Bank of Egypt and invest the other three billion on the Egyptian market. The UAE said $2 billion of its pledges would be deposited with the CBE, while the other $2 billion would be invested on the market. Meanwhile, Kuwait promises it will invest $4 billion in support of the Egyptian economy. We weren’t able to confirm exactly how much Oman will be giving, but for the math to add up, their investment would have to be about half a billion.

Al-Sweidan Group Invests $6 billion in Damietta Logistics Center for Grains.

According to Reuters and Mada Masr, UAE’s Al-Sweidan Group signed an agreement with Egypt’s Ministry of Domestic Supply for a $6 billion investment in the Damietta Logistics Center for Grains. We weren’t able to find any other details, but if true will mark one of the biggest investment outside of the energy sector.

BG to invest $4 billion in Egypt

British Gas plan to invest $4 billion in Egypt over the next two year. According to Sami Iskander, the company’s chief operating officer, the deal will be signed with the overnment on Sunday, but until now there hasn’t been a final deal announced.

EGYPT & IDB Agreement Worth Over $4 Billion

Said to have been signed in the margins of the EEDC, Dr. Naglaa El Ehwany, Minister of International Cooperation, co-signed four agreements with Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Ali, President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), worth a total amount of $800 million to finance four priority development projects for Egypt. These included: $220 million for the Egyptian-Saudi Electricity Connection, $457 million for the Sharm Sheikh Airport Development $198 million for the Assiut Refinery. The rest of the promised investment is tied into a framework agreement worth around $3 billion, signed between the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (an affiliate of the IDB Group) and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation to import petroleum products into the Egyptian market over the next three years.

Eni Signed Heads of Agreements Worth $5 billion 

Italian oil company Eni signed a heads of agreement, a non-binding document outlining the main issues relevant to a tentative (partnership or other) agreement with Egypt worth $5 billion over 4-5 years. According to Reuters the Oil Minister, Sherif Ismail, claims that the investment, if finalised, will generate 900 million standard cubic feet of gas. However, the conference website claims that the same minister expects the deal will generated 200 million barrels of oil and 1.3 trillion cubic feet of gas for concessions in the Mediterranean, the Western Desert, the Nile Delta and Sinai. We aren’t sure which of the minister’s statements is correct, but considering that the deal hopes to be finalised within six weeks, we will just assume this all speculation until then.

China State Grid Invests $1.8 Billion

According to Mada Masr, the Ministry of Electricity signed an agreement with the China State Grid worth $1.8 billion to develop the national grid as well as developing renewable energy projects.