Egypt to import LNG to cover demand from July 2025 to June 2026, cabinet says
Egypt plans to import liquefied natural gas to cover demand from July 2025 to June 2026, the Egyptian cabinet said in a statement on Wednesday, as it ramps up purchases to meet power demand despite strained government finances.
Reuters reported on June 12 that Egypt has reached agreements with several energy firms and trading houses to buy 150 to 160 cargoes of liquefied natural gas to complement its domestic production and pipeline imports from Israel, according to industry sources.
Egypt's gas production has been on a downward trend in the past few years, reaching as low as 3,485 million standard cubic metres in April 2025, compared to a peak of 6,133 million standard cubic meters in March 2021, according to data from the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI).
The North African nation has had to resort to load shedding, raising imports from Israel, and seeking foreign funding for LNG shipments.
Israeli gas currently accounts for about 15-20% of Egypt's consumption, JODI data shows.
When two of Israel's three gas fields, Leviathan and Karish, were shut down nearly two weeks ago due to the Iran-Israel conflict, Egypt was forced to stop supplying gas to petrochemical and fertilizer factories.
More imports come in the form of liquefied natural gas for regasification in Egypt. But while Egypt currently has three floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) to carry out that process, only one is operational.
(Reporting by Momen Saeed Atallah, Writing by Nayera Abdallah. Editing by Jane Merriman, Alexandra Hudson)
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