Al-Masry Al-Youm has learnt that the Ministry of Petroleum has completed a project to restructure the Petroleum General Egyptian Authority by setting up an independent body organizing petroleum and natural gas affairs. The ministry is also planning to create two holding companies, one to refine oil and the other to circulate oil products (thus bringing to five the number of holding companies), and to restructure subsidiary public companies so that they become subsidiary to these two holding companies. Official sources said Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmy submitted the project during the recent meeting of the Authority board of directors. They also said the meeting was not attended by some prominent ministers or their representatives at the board of directors, adding the board gave its green light, on principle, to the minister's project. According to the sources, such independent organ will be responsible for organizing and controlling all activities, distribution and consumption of oil and natural gas products, setting the prices and the quantities of the local consumption of oil products, issuing licenses, separating production from distribution by applying economic principles and developing the financing structures of transportation and distribution companies. The sources affirmed that the new structure would include a definition of the Authority's activities so that the Authority itself may be only in charge of oil production and discovery, while the remaining responsibilities will be transferred to the new holding companies. According to the sources, following the approval of the Authority board of directors to the sector's new structure, the project will be sent to the Prime Minister to be approved. After that, it will be sent to the President of the Republic, who will issue a presidential decree on the foundation of the new body. The latter will be directly submitted to the Prime Minister. The sources added that the technical, administrative and legal studies on these new entities are currently underway, adding that some workers will be transferred from the Authority to the new companies according to their specializations. The dates for the announcement of the new structure will be set this year after all competent organs have official given their go-ahead. According to this project, on which the ministry has been working for months, public oil refineries (Alexandria National Refining and Petrochemicals Company, Ameriya Refining Company, Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company (GSPCO), Nasr Petroleum Company, Assiut Oil Refining Company and Cairo Oil Refining Company) will be subsidiary to the holding oil refining company, while the holding company for the distribution of oil products will include Misr Petroleum, the Petroleum Cooperative Society (CO-OP), Oil Pipelines Company and Petrogas. As for the General Petroleum Company, it will be a subsidiary of the Authority.
