Egypt to slice LNG imports to 80 cargoes as domestic gas output grows

Egypt is reportedly planning to significantly scale down imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the current financial year as its domestic gas production continues to rise.

Egypt aims to import 80 cargoes of the chilled fuel during the 2017-18 financial year that began in July, Reuters reported on Sunday citing the country’s Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla as saying.

This is down by 38 cargoes as compared to the year before.

The country was planning to import 154 cargoes of LNG in 2016-17 but only imported 118 cargoes due to the increase in local gas production, Molla told the news agency.

Egypt – that has turned a net importer from an exporter over the course of 2016 due to falling production – has deployed two FSRUs in Ain Sokhna that serve as the country’s import terminals.

However, domestic gas discoveries such as Eni’s giant Zohr gas field, that is expected to come into production at the end of 2017,  will save Egypt billions of dollars that would otherwise be spent on imports.

Egypt also has an LNG export plant located at Idku, 50km east of Alexandria. According to the report, Egypt expects to increase its LNG production by 1 billion cubic feet per day by the end of the current financial year to reach 6.2 billion cubic feet per day.

LNG World News Staff