The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) plans to launch a tender for importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments in January 2018, according to an official source at the company.
The source added that the upcoming tender aims to secure local market needs of natural gas during the second quarter (Q2) of 2018.
Meanwhile, EGAS seeks to import about 80 LNG shipments worth $1.8bn in the current fiscal year (FY) 2017/2018, compared to 118 shipments imported in the last FY 2016/2017.
Egypt’s natural gas production reached about 5.5bn cubic feet per day, up from 4.6bn cubic feet in 2016, after adding a number of new discoveries to the national gas grid, namely Zohr gas field.
In November 2014, EGAS signed a five-year contract with Norwegian Hoegh LNG to provide Egypt with its first floating LNG vessel with a maximum capacity of 500m cubic feet per day. The new vessel arrived in Egypt during the first week of April.
On the other hand, BW Gas won another tender to supply another LNG vessel to Egypt. The second vessel, with a maximum capacity of 750m cubic feet per day, arrived to Egypt at the beginning of October 2015 and entered operation in early November of the same year.
EGAS plans to stop importing LNG by the end of 2018, benefiting from the increase of local production from the new discoveries in the Mediterranean, especially Zohr field whose first stage has started supplying gas to the national grid two days ago with a capacity of 350m cubic feet per day.
