Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum raised liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports in August to their highest level in two years, reaching about 4 million cubic meters, up from 3.5 million during the same period last year, a ministry source familiar with the imports told Al Manassa.
Domestic natural gas production ranges from 3.7 billion to 3.8 billion cubic feet per day, while consumption exceeds 7 billion cubic feet per day during peak periods, leaving a gap that the government is increasingly relying on LNG imports to fill, the source said.
Last week, the government reported a record load on the national grid, with demand peaking at 40,200 megawatts during the heat wave.
The increase in LNG imports has raised Egypt’s regasification capacity by about 12% this August to roughly 2.8 billion cubic feet per day, the source said, as the government seeks to secure enough natural gas to meet elevated domestic demand this month.
The source, who requested anonymity, said all imported gas will be fed into the national gas grid to meet demand from various economic sectors, led by electricity and industry, which together account for 80% to 85% of Egypt’s total natural gas consumption.
The source said the ministry plans to regasify 17 of the 25 cargoes due to arrive in Egypt this month using three regasification vessels currently operating in Egyptian territorial waters. The remaining cargoes will be regasified in Jordan before being pumped into Egypt’s domestic network.
Egypt is regasifying some imported cargoes in Jordan because of constrained domestic regasification capacity following the shutdown of the Energos Winter regasification vessel after it was struck by a drone and caught fire alongside another vessel at Damietta Port late last month.
The shutdown left Egypt with three operating regasification vessels, limiting it to processing 17 of the 25 cargoes due in August. The Ministry of Petroleum diverted the remaining eight to Jordan’s Aqaba Port for regasification before the gas is pumped back to Egypt through the Arab Gas Pipeline.
