LNG

Egypt’s state energy company EGAS has reduced its LNG imports to the Ain Sokhna regas terminal, chartered from Hoegh LNG, by more than a third to 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d). Situated east of Cairo, the Hoegh Gallon FSRU is on an interim charter from the Norwegian shipping company Hoegh, and had been originally destined for Australia.

Egypt plans to construct a $7.5-billion petrochemicals, energy and bunkering complex at Ain Sokhna in the Gulf of Suex where it previously imported LNG during the era of natural gas shortages before the Zohr gas field and other discoveries were made in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Nile Basin.

The Egyptian government said the facility would be constructed on a 3.65 million square metres site and is the latest instalment in the country’s comeback story as an LNG exporter and now with plans to build its East Med energy hub.

The deal to develop the complex is between the Red Sea National Refining and Petrochemicals Company and the Suez Canal Economic Zone's development company. They aim to produce value-added petroleum products to fill Egypt's domestic needs and enable exports.

“The products include polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester, bunkering fuel and other petroleum and chemical products,” said a statement.

Egypt’s gas crisis during the “Arab Spring” social upheavals in North Africa and the Middle East in 2014 led to the diversion of natural gas supplies away from LNG production to meet growing domestic demand and to avoid power cuts.

The Gulf of Suez is a main transit point for global shipping and the development of bunkering will be part of the business.

Before the bringing on stream of the Zohr field in the East Med in 2017, Egypt had been forced to import LNG from 2015 in two floating storage and regasification units deployed at Ain Sokhna.

The Egyptians halted LNG imports two years ago and have now started regular exports of LNG from their two liquefaction facilities at Idku and Damietta, east of the port of Alexandria.

The Idku LNG export plant has been on stream again since 2017 under the operatorship of Royal Dutch Shell, which acquired original operator BG Group.

The Damietta facility only re-started operations and exports in February 2021.

With Damietta back on stream, Egypt added 4.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG output to its export volumes now totalling 12.5 MTPA.

The move forward for Damietta came after the resolution of  a long-standing dispute between the shareholders over contracts because of the closure.

Naturgy Energy, the Spain-based European utility, agreed to sell its stake in the Damietta plant and to rescind its Egyptian gas contracts on departing from the Unión Fenosa Gas (UFG) joint venture.

Naturgy’s UFG partners, Italian Eni company and the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas), reached the agreement under which Naturgy received a series of payments adding up to US$600 million.

Eni has taken over the contract for the purchase of natural gas for the LNG plant and receives corresponding liquefaction rights.

Hoegh LNG, the Norwegian fleet owner and floating import project developer, reported rising profits as it advanced with projects to supply two Australian states with natural gas, while focusing on China and listing more than a dozen other countries likely to deploy floating storage and regasification units as terminals.

Egypt is winding down its floating storage and regasification unit contracts for LNG imports as the Arab nation’s natural gas crisis has eased with the discovery and development of new offshore gas fields in the East Mediterranean and the Nile Delta.

Egypt is being obliged to pay over US$2 billion plus interest and legal costs after losing an international tribunal dispute to Union Fenosa Gas for the unilateral interruption of gas supply to UFG’s liquefaction plant in Damietta, near the Mediterranean port of Alexandria.

Egypt is on track to halt LNG imports by year-end as natural gas production was ramped up at its large-scale discovery in the East Mediterranean, about 180 kilometres offshore from Port Said and in waters of 1,500 metres in depth.

Noble Energy, the US company with East Mediterranean natural gas assets, said it signed a definitive agreement to sell a 7.5 percent working interest in the Tamar field, offshore Israel, for around $800 million, including $560M in cash.

Oct 13 (LNGJ) - The 210,100 cubic metres capacity Q-Flex vessel “Al Ghariya” will deliver a cargo on October 15 to the Mina Al Ahamdi import terminal in Kuwait from Ras Laffan in Qatar, according to shipping data. The 147,200 cubic metres “Arctic Lady” is scheduled to deliver a cargo on October 19 to the Jebel Ali import facility in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates from the Hammerfest plant in Norway. The 160,000 cubic metres capacity “Cool Voyager” will unload a shipment on October 20 at the Egyptian port of Ain Sokhna in the Gulf of Suez from Qatargas in Ras Laffan.

June 28 (LNGJ) - The 75,000 cubic metres capacity Med-Max vessel “Cheikh Bouamama” is scheduled to unload a shipment on June 30 at the Barcelona import terminal in northeast Spain from the Skikda liquefaction plant in Algeria, according to shipping data. The 159,950 cubic metres capacity “Energy Atlantic” will deliver a cargo on June 30 to the Egyptian LNG terminal port of Ain Sokhna in the Gulf of Suez where two FSRUs are deployed. The cargo for Egypt was lifted on June 10 at the Bonny Island export plant in Nigeria. The 160,000 cubic metres capacity vessel “Asian Vision” will unload a shipment on July 7 at the Chinese Dalian import facility, owned by PetroChina, from the Woodside Petroleum’s Dampier export terminal in Western Australia.

State-run Egypt Natural Gas Holding Co. has released tender documents to secure almost 100 LNG shipments in 2017-2018 to meet rising demand before offshore pipeline supplies come on stream from the world-class Zohr natural gas field.