The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) plans to rent a gasification ship located in Jordan with a capacity of 500m cubic feet of gas daily and to host it in a private port controlled by SUMED in Ain Sokhna in 2017.
A prominent official at EGAS told Daily News Egypt that Egypt has contracted to rent about 200m cubic feet of gas from the full capacity of the gasification ship in Jordan since the end of 2015.
He added that Egypt received quantities estimated at approximately 200m cubic feet of gas daily through the pipeline coming from Jordan last summer.
The official mentioned the re-opening of the gas pipeline between Egypt and Jordan and the import of 200m cubic feet per day to meet summer’s fuel requirements for power plants.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Petroleum on Monday, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed with Jordan to benefit from the excess capacity of the gasification ship in Aqaba.
The memorandum was signed by chairperson of Jordanian-Egyptian Fajr for Natural Gas Transmission and Supply Fouad Rashad and the general manager of the Jordanian National Electric Power Company, Abdel Fattah Al-Daradkeh. The step came in pursuance of the Jordanian Cabinet’s decision stipulating cooperation in the use of surplus capacity.
The chairperson of EGAS, Mohammed El-Masry, travelled to Jordan last week to negotiate on renting their gasification ship.
EGAS raised imports of gas to about1bn cubic feet per day through the two gasification ships at Ain Sokhna port, instead of the 850m cubic feet in the past week.
The official said the factor controlling the supply of the imported gas quantities is the availability of the liquidity necessary to pay their value regularly, adding that the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation is in continuous coordination with the Central Bank of Egypt to allocate the monthly expenses of imports.
He estimated the monthly gas import bill at $250m to supply about 1.2bn cubic feet gas monthly to the domestic market.
The official pointed out that the direction to provide a third ship to work alongside with the two ships located in Ain Sokhna area will enable Egypt to receive nearly 2bn cubic feet of gas daily. This will guarantee the stability of supplies for industry and electricity without problems, especially after allowing the private sector to import natural gas and execute many projects in the fields of steel and petrochemicals over the next few years, which will increase Egypt’s requirements for natural gas.
He explained that according to studies conducted by specialised institutions, Egypt can achieve self-sufficiency in natural gas by 2022. Therefore, imports will continue over the next five years to overcome the gap between the local production and consumption.
Egypt currently has two gasification ships in the Ain Sokhna area, each with a capacity of 500m cubic feet daily.