The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) has decided to postpone sine die a tender to rent a third floating and storage regasification unit (FSRU), due to lower than expected gas needs. In early November 2016, EGAS had delayed the tender by one month, i.e. to the end of November, until an agreement is made with the Ministry of Electricity over its future LNG needs. The third FSRU was then scheduled to be commissioned in late June 2017.
The first 5.7 bcm/year floating storage and reclassification unit (FSRU) was delivered by Hoëgh LNG in Ain Sokhna in April 2015 and the second 7.7 bcm/year FSRU (by BW Gas), in Ain Sokhna too, was delivered in September 2015. The tender for a third 7.8 bcm/year FSRU had attracted four international bidders, namely Hoëgh LNG, Excelerate Energy, BW Gas and an unnamed bidder in the summer 2016.
Once an LNG exporter, Egypt turned into a net importer in 2015 with a negative trade balance of 3.4 bcm. The country is facing a declining gas production (-5%/year between 2008 and 2015) and a soaring gas demand (+6.3%/year over the same period). However, Egypt bets on the development of new gas resources (including Eni's giant gas field Zohr) and has secured 60 LNG cargoes for 2017-2018.
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