LNG

Höegh LNG Holdings, the owner and operator of 13 LNG vessels including floating storage and regasification (FSRU) units, said an FSRU chartered to Australia will be deployed beforehand to Egypt to improve the Arab nation’s energy security.

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.

ExxonMobil Corp, the US major with some of the largest LNG production and project stakes in Qatar and elsewhere, has acquired more than 1.7 million acres offshore Egypt where large natural gas finds such as the East Mediterranean Zohr field have been made in recent years.

Egypt said its rising natural gas surplus through 2020 would be used to satisfy demand from the power and industry sectors and to meet LNG export obligations as its overall output reaches more than 5 billion cubic feet per day.

The Egyptian Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister, Tarek El Molla, addressed the nation’s natural gas output targets at a World Economic Forum meeting held at a Dead Sea resort at southern Shuneh in Jordan.

El Molla said he was pleased with the output from Egypt’s natural gas fields on the West Nile Delta, at Noor in North Sinai, the Atoll field in the East Nile Delta and the giant Zohr resources in the East Mediterranean.

The Minister noted that Egypt had recently launched an international tender for new exploration licences in 10 areas of the Red Sea where it would also have cooperation from Saudi Arabia.

El Molla held talks with his Saudi counterpart Khaled el Faleh on means of boosting joint cooperation.

“The two ministers exchanged views on opportunities of oil and gas exploration in the Red Sea and means of intensifying search and exploration operations in the coming phase,” said a statement.

At the same time the Egyptian minister said the nation was pursuing LNG exports from the Idku liquefaction plant near Alexandria, which resumed in 2017, and was also set to restart production at the nearby Damietta LNG facility.

“We are exporting 1.1 billion cubic feet per day and we expect that by the end of the year this figure will go up to 2 bcf per day, and this is when we resume the operation of the Damietta plant,” said El Molla.

“The second plant is expected to operate within this year,” added the Minister.

On the Red Sea tenders, interested companies have been given until August to submit their bids for the 10 licences to be issued on the production-sharing model and covering an area of 3,000 square kilometres.

“We are preparing to become an energy hub as everybody knows we have a fantastic geographical location between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean,” said El Molla.

“We also have important infrastructure, the Suez Canal, LNG plants in Damietta and Port Said, refineries on two coasts and the Sumed pipeline running from the Gulf of Suez to offshore Alexandria,” he explained.

“For example, we’ve signed agreements with Cyprus to bring their gas here, whether for our domestic use or to export on their behalf through our LNG facilities. There’s an opportunity to do the same with any other gas in the Eastern Mediterranean basin,” added the minister.

The start of production at the Zohr field by Italian energy company Eni in 2016 transformed the country from being an importer to again being an exporter.

As regards its import facilities in the form of two floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) deployed at the port of Ain Sokhna in the Gulf of Suez, one FSRU would continue to be in operation for strategic reasons.

“The regasification plant, which is the FSRU standing at Ain Sokhna, is going to be there for strategic reasons but on idle mode,” he added.

The Egyptian Government has approved the sale of stakes to BP of the UK and Mubadala Petroleum of the United Arab Emirates in the Nour North Sinai offshore exploration concession after both companies had previously invested in the huge Zohr field that enabled the Egyptians to re-start LNG exports.