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EU expects Egyptian LNG deliveries

to remain high – official

EGYPT THE European Union expects deliveries Meanwhile, the Damietta LNG plant located
of Egyptian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to west of Port Said possesses one liquefaction train
Egypt has rapidly remain “relatively high” EU commissioner with a production capacity of 5.2mn tpy.
turned from a net for energy Kadri Simson told Reuters on the After being idle since 2012, Italy’s Eni
importer to an exporter sidelines of an energy conference in Cairo on restarted Damietta in 2021. With the terminal
of gas once more. February 13. coming back online, Egypt has now sought to
Egypt’s Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla position itself as a regional energy hub with LNG
revealed at the conference that he expects the production from domestic gas fields as well as
country will produce around 7.5 million tonnes imports from Israel.
of LNG this year, roughly equivalent to produc- However, rising domestic demand and infra-
tion in 2022. Last year, nearly 70% of Egypt’s structure constraints have curbed LNG exports.
LNG exports were sent to Europe, including But with Egypt struggling with an acute dollar
Turkey, according to data from Refinitiv. shortage, the cash-strapped country has been
In June 2022, a memorandum of under- seeking to save gas for export.
standing (MoU) was signed between the EU, Molla acknowledged that the country’s LNG
Israel and Egypt. Currently, Israeli gas from terminals were operating at less than full capac-
the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Haifa is ity. However, industry experts believe that the
transported by pipeline to liquefaction plants facilities will need modification or construction
on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, where it is then of new production chains if there is to be a signif-
delivered to Europe. icant jump in exports.
Egypt is home to two liquefaction plants. “We see that there is spare capacity in lique-
The IDKU Egyptian LNG plant situated east of faction facilities here in Egypt, but exact volumes
Alexandria has two liquefaction trains with a were not part of our memorandum of under-
combined capacity of 7.5mn tons per year (tpy). standing,” Molla said. ™

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