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Saipem to build gas plant in Algeria
The joint venture between Algeria’s state-run energy company Sonatrach and Italy’s Eni has awarded Italy’s Saipem a $1.8 billion construction contract for the development of the Menzel Ledjmet East (MLE) gas field. The facilities will be located in the Berkine Basin, about 1,000 kilometers southeast of Algiers. They will include a processing capacity of 350 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas and 35,000 barrels a day (b/d) of liquid. The acquisition will increase Eni’s reserves by about 190 million barrels of oil within its Algerian asset portfolio. It is worth noting that Eni took control of a 75 percent stake in the MLE field in September 2008 after buying Canada’s First Calgary Petroleum that was at the time developing the field for $865 million.
TAQA invests in Moroccan and Tunisian power
According of the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA), $2.5 billion worth of investments will be earmarked for three electric power plants in Morocco and Tunisia. The construction will begin this year while commercial operations will commence in 2012 and 2013. TAQA is going to sign an agreement with the Moroccan government to upgrade the Jore Lasfer Power Plant, in partnership with the Spanish energy giant Iberdrola Ingenieria Construction. TAQA will also be bidding for a wind farm in Morocco, in addition to a third project in Tunisia which is designed to generate 500 megawatts of electricity. TAQA is also able to self-finance its forthcoming projects due to a cash surplus. Moreover, the company has a solid AA credit rating enabling it to tap into funding sources.
Egypt’s unemployment drops to 8.8 percent
Unemployment in Egypt dropped to 8.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 from 9.1 percent the previous year. According to a state news agency, a total of 2.2 million people out of a workforce of 25 million were unemployed at the end of December. This decrease in unemployment came as a result of the expansionary fiscal measures taken by the government in order to combat the global financial crisis. Cairo spent $22 billion in 2008 on a stimulus package and announced a new stimulus package of $17.5 billion for 2009(with $11.6 billion allocated for infrastructure investment and $5.8 billion to export subsidies). This comes in the wake of the global recession where Egypt’s economic growth has suffered. Growth slowed to 4.1 percent in the six months from July to December 2008, down from 7 percent over the same period in 2007. However Cairo expects that growth will regain its upward trend and will reach 4.5 percent by the end of the fiscal year, which ends on 30 June of this year. The government expects the economy to grow by 5.5 percent for the whole fiscal year.