Egypt: Construction Work at El Dabaa NPP Accelerates

The North African country is desperate for electricity and is asking Russia to speed up construction work on the El Dabaa nuclear power plant in the Mediterranean, a joint project between the Cairo government and the Russian state agency Rosatom. Its CEO Alexei Likhachev said during a meeting with Egyptian authorities that 30% of the work will be completed by the end of 2024. Likhachev emphasized that “the Dabaa project is a priority for Russia,” adding that Rosatom is “aking all necessary measures to implement the project within the established deadlines.”

Earlier, Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly instructed the competent Egyptian authorities to take all necessary measures to support the rapid implementation and completion of the project. Likhachev also expressed hope for “deepening cooperation between the two countries both in the field of nuclear technologies used for non-military purposes” and “new and renewable energy sources.”

For his part, Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mahmoud Esmat emphasized that the Egyptian government is working to “overcome all obstacles and facilitate all special procedures” that can speed up the project’s implementation. Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk also attended the meeting and expressed his intention to “take all measures regarding the financial aspect of the project.”

In addition to developing nuclear power and renewable energy, Egypt is actively working to find new sources of energy. On Thursday, August 29, Cairo announced that it had discovered a new rich oil field in the Kalabsha Economic Zone in the Western Desert. Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum wrote in a press release that the new facility has the potential to produce 7165 barrels of oil per day. The discovery is one of the results of a new global tender launched by Egypt in 2024 to find new oil and natural gas fields in 12 geological blocks in the offshore areas of the Mediterranean and the Nile Delta.