Egypt is planning its first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to be delivered at the country’s floating regasification terminal in Ain al-Sokhna on the Gulf of Suez in March, a government official was reported as saying by Bloomberg.
The North African country is set to import at least 76 shipments of LNG, to help meet domestic needs until it can boost its own gas production and restore exports after halting them last year, said Hamdy Abdel Aziz, head of the Petroleum Ministry’s media department, without revealing the supplier of the shipment.
“We expect that by 2020 we will stop importing gas,” Abdel Aziz told Bloomberg in a phone interview on Monday. “Depending on the needs of the local market and the diversity of its energy mix, we may resume exports after 2020 as major field development and exploration projects are under way.”
Egypt has signed 56 contracts for $12bn in exploration investment since November 2013, according to the ministry.
A number of oil companies like BP, Dana Gas and Total won licenses this year with eight additional concessions in the Mediterranean Sea still waiting to be awarded.
According to the ministry’s website, the government has agreed to buy cargoes of LNG from independent supplier Trafigura AG, Dutch-owned Vitol, Noble Clean Fuels and Algeria’s Sonatrach. It’s also in talks for shipments from BP and Gazprom.
As imports increasee, the country will need to lease a second floating regasification terminal, Abdel Aziz said. LNG is gas chilled to a liquid that tanker ships can transport to distant destinations not linked by pipelines.
Egypt has two LNG-exporting plants, with shipments from one of them, operated by Union Fenosa Gas, stopped since 2013.
International companies began to invest again in the North African country to explore for and produce gas after receiving some of the overdue payments Egypt owed them for past production.
The latest contracts awarded include drilling rights in the Nile Delta and Western Desert and in offshore areas of the Mediterranean and Gulf of Suez.
