Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) is to put forward a global tender this week to rent a third gasification vessel with the capacity of 750 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla told Daily News Egypt that the third vessel will contribute to bridging the gap between demand and supply, helping to meet  local market needs.

He added that the vessel will supply gas required for economic development over the next five years.

According to El-Molla, the vessel will dock at Sumer, in the Ain Sokhna terminal, where it will receive liquid gas shipments, convert the liquid into a gas state, and then pump the gas into the national gas grid pipelines.

The minister pointed out that the third vessel will boost import capacity to 1.95 billion cubic feet of gas per day, instead of the current capacity of 1.2 billion, which is imported through two gasification vessels also docked in Ain Sokhna. He added that importing more gas will stabilise supplies for electricity and other industries within the country.

According to studies prepared by specialised institutions, Egypt can achieve self-sufficiency with regards to natural gas by 2022, at which point importing could cease.

Egypt currently has two gasification vessels in Ain Sokhna. The first is the Norwegian Hauge ship, which has a capacity of 500 million cubic feet per day. The second vessel is owned by Singapore’s BW, which has a 700 million cubic feet capacity.

Egypt’s current production of natural gas is 4 billion cubic feet per day, and will remain so until the end of the current fiscal year.

The total volume of compensatory wells that were linked to the production does not exceed 700 million cubic feet per year, while the monthly decline in the productivity of Egyptian wells stands at 100 million feet per month.