The 1,200 km pipeline was constructed in five stages by Egyptian company Petrojet on behalf of the Nile Valley Gas Company (NVGC).
Under the first phase of the project, NVGC took over a pipeline built by the government from Cairo to a power station located near Beni Suef. Stage two involved the construction of 150 km of pipeline extending from Beni Suef to Abu Qurqas. Stage three saw 136 km of 32 inch diameter pipeline laid from the governorate of Minya to Assiut at a cost of $US75 million while Stage four involved the laying of 100 km of 30 inch diameter pipeline from Assiut to Sohag.
The final stage involved the laying of 408 km of 30 inch diameter pipeline from Sohag to Aswan and was commissioned in late November. Egyptian Minister for Petroleum Sameh Fahmi attended a ceremony in Aswan to celebrate the completion of the Upper Egypt Gas Pipeline project and commended the companies for completing and implementing the pipeline in “record time”.
The pipeline was worth approximately $US9.3 billion in investments and formed part of a broader development plan designed to accelerate reconstruction and economic development within the Upper Egyptian region by providing energy resources to entice industrial projects.