Egypt Plans to Import More Gas from Israel

With the much-feared risks from Israeli war on Gaza subsiding, Egypt’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from Israel has jumped 52% during the first nine months of this year on an annual basis, to record 236.6 billion cubic feet.

The government plans to increase gas imports from Israel by at least 38%, about 290 billion cubic feet, by the end of the year, compared with 210.2 billion cubic feet that were imported during the past year.

Egypt relies on Israeli LNG to meet part of its domestic demand, while exporting the surplus in the form of natural gas mainly to Europe, through liquefaction plants in Idku and Damietta, with a production capacity of 2.1 billion cubic feet per day.

These LNG exports are one of the major source of foreign exchange earner from Egypt, whose forex reserves have been dwindling due to the ongoing economic crisis. However, some of the GCC countries such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar besides the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been helping Egypt to tide over the crisis.

The average daily imports of gas from Israel in the first nine months of this year reached 837 million cubic feet per day, compared to 575 million cubic feet per day during the same period last year. It may be mentioned here that Israel’s gas network is connected by a pipeline to Egypt, which makes it suitable for transport.

The LNG imports from Israel came down after Israel’s war on Gaza to 150 million cubic feet per day at the end of last October, before increasing to 350 million cubic feet per day at the beginning of this month.

Exports to Remain Same

A few days ago, Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Tarek El-Molla said that the Egyptian LNG exports amounted to about 3 million tons during the first half of this year and he expects it will remain the same during the first half of 2024 like in 2023.

The value of Egypt’s natural gas imports during the first nine months of this year increased by 39.7% to reach $1.875 billion, compared to $1.342 billion during the same period last year,

Egypt began importing gas from Israel for the first time in 2020, in a deal worth $15 billion between Noble Energy – which was acquired by Chevron in 2020 – and Delek Drilling on the one hand, and the Egyptian Dolphinus Holding Company on the other.

Egypt’s natural gas exports increased by 14.3% in 2022 to 8 million tons, compared to 7 million tons in 2021, and Egypt earned $8.4 billion from gas exports in 2022, compared to $3.5 billion in 2021, an increase of 140%.