Abstract
Civil society in Egypt is absent from energy-related policy-making in general and oil and gas in particular, due partly to the industry’s isolated location. As this chapter notes, oil and gas is a sector of marked sensitivity because it generates a disproportionate share of rents with which Egypt’s ‘deep state’ buys loyalty and obedience. Unable to engage effectively in public debate in these vital areas, civil society is denied learning opportunities relevant to public policy more generally. Exclusion from the energy arena also has an enervating effect on civil society, compounding its sense of its own irrelevance. State, society and energy in Egypt are caught up in a vicious circle that has profoundly negative impacts on the country’s economy and polity and from which it is not easy to see an exit. Violent protest—sometimes defined as ‘terrorism’—grows out of this vicious circle and the repression of civil society.
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Notes
- 1.
On the relationship between information and economic development and the ‘information-shy’ Tunisian regime under President Ben Ali, see Henry (1998).
- 2.
In April 2015, Minister for Investment, Ashraf Salman, announced that shares in three companies owned by these two hydrocarbon-holding companies would be listed on the Cairo stock exchange. Presumably the government’s intent is to retain control of those companies while raising much-needed additional capital and possibly attracting investment from international oil and gas companies that would be accompanied with technology transfer. Of the three companies to be listed, only MIDOR, Middle East Oil Refinery Company, had a substantial value, possibly of something around USD 1 billion. The joint value of the other two was estimated to be less than USD 30 million (Ahmed 2015).
- 3.
Thanks to energy subsidies, these have been Egypt’s most profitable companies and have operated virtually tax free. They contribute a small share of the paltry 5% of government revenues resulting from taxes on industry, commerce and capital gains. On the finances of these firms, see Adly (2014).
- 4.
For an analysis of the failure to develop renewable energy resources, see Springborg (2016).
- 5.
On the role of Mubarak-era private sector media outlets under Sisi, see Dunne (2015).
- 6.
For an assessment of the differential impacts of subsidies and their removal, see Attalah (2014). As with other such assessments, evidence presented in this one indicates that upper middle classes receive a disproportionate share of fuel subsidies, along with energy-intensive industries, especially cement and fertilizer production. The chief benefit to the lower classes of subsidies comes in the form of bottled propane gas, which is the main cooking and heating fuel for them.
- 7.
For a review of this debate, see Hassan (2013).
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Springborg, R. (2018). Egypt: State, Society and Energy Caught in a Vicious Circle. In: Overland, I. (eds) Public Brainpower. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60627-9_7
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