logo
Egypt expands LNG infrastructure with new regasification agreements

Egypt expands LNG infrastructure with new regasification agreements

Egypt Today16-03-2025
CAIRO – 16 March 2025: Egypt's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Karim Badawi, recently held discussions with Steven Kobos, CEO of the U.S.-based LNG solutions company Excelerate Energy, to explore leasing floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs).
Their talks focused on strengthening Egypt's LNG sector through technical collaboration and trade partnerships, according to a ministry statement.
In addition to this initiative, a government delegation will travel to Germany later this month to finalize a lease agreement for another regasification unit.
Egypt is also preparing to sign an agreement with Cyprus to lease an FSRU that will be stationed in the country to help meet peak energy demand during the summer.
The government is further expanding its regasification capacity in the Red Sea and Ain Sokhna.
Currently, two regasification vessels are docked in the Red Sea, and plans are in place to bring a third unit to Ain Sokhna by June 2025.
Additionally, a fourth unit from Turkey is expected to be operational this summer, reinforcing Egypt's energy security strategy and boosting its LNG infrastructure.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Petroleum Minister, IPIC chief discuss expanding local industry, investment in Egypt
Petroleum Minister, IPIC chief discuss expanding local industry, investment in Egypt

Daily News Egypt

time25 minutes ago

  • Daily News Egypt

Petroleum Minister, IPIC chief discuss expanding local industry, investment in Egypt

Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi met with Abdulkarim Abdullah Al-Mutawa, Chairperson of the International Pipe Industry Company (IPIC), to discuss strengthening local industrial capabilities and expanding investment in Egypt's petroleum sector. During the meeting, the two sides reviewed IPIC's activities, with particular focus on the company's factory in Port Said—established through joint Egyptian-Kuwaiti investments—as a successful model of industrial localization. The facility produces high-quality steel pipes and elbows used in oil and gas projects, infrastructure, transportation, and irrigation systems. Minister Badawi emphasized that promoting local industry is a national priority, given its critical role in reducing Egypt's import bill and increasing reliance on domestically manufactured components. He noted that the Ministry fully supports projects that contribute to industry localization, attract foreign and regional investment, and boost added value in the petroleum sector. 'The investment environment in Egypt is undergoing major positive transformations,' Badawi said, 'with significant incentives to encourage participation in energy, petroleum, and gas industries—particularly from Arab partners.' He added that the government is focused on offering promising investment opportunities while supporting the shift to renewable energy, including maximizing the use of natural gas in local manufacturing to generate greater economic returns. For his part, Al-Mutawa praised Egypt's investment climate and highlighted the strength of its engineering and technical workforce. He noted that IPIC's Port Said facility is fully operated by Egyptian professionals and benefits from the country's robust infrastructure, government support, and political stability—all essential ingredients for investment success. He also expressed appreciation for the ongoing support from the Ministry and Egyptian stakeholders, especially Petrojet, which played a key role in the project. The meeting concluded with both parties agreeing to explore further expansion opportunities in line with Egypt's strategy to enhance local manufacturing and reduce dependency on imports. The Kuwaiti delegation affirmed its interest in increasing investment in Egypt, citing the country's favorable conditions for long-term industrial growth.

Unleashing mining potential - Economy - Al-Ahram Weekly
Unleashing mining potential - Economy - Al-Ahram Weekly

Al-Ahram Weekly

time2 days ago

  • Al-Ahram Weekly

Unleashing mining potential - Economy - Al-Ahram Weekly

Egypt's mining sector has recently been in the limelight with a set of new exploration agreements and production increases, not only for gold, which is the most actively looked for mineral, but also phosphates and iron and other lesser-known minerals to the public like white sand. The Egypt Mining Forum 2025, which took place last week, saw agreements finalised for more gold exploration with AngloGold Ashanti, which bought Centamin and is now the operator of the Sukari Gold Mine, as well as Canada's Barrick Mining Corporation. 'Egypt is open to all forms of investment, with a particular focus on empowering Egyptian, regional, and international investors, and we stand ready to allocate additional areas for exploration and prospecting across all mineral types, reaffirming our unwavering commitment to expanding growth opportunities within the mining sector,' Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi said. A $658 million phosphoric acid complex is currently under construction in the New Valley governorate due to a contract between a consortium of Egyptian companies and two Chinese entities. Phosphoric acid is used in many industries, the most important of which is fertilisers. The complex has an estimated production capacity of 900,000 tons annually. 'This clearly demonstrates the strong desire of international companies to expand their investments in the Egyptian mining sector, which serves as proof of major international companies' confidence in Egypt's investment climate, reflecting the success of the state's policy in attracting foreign investments,' Badawi said. Egypt recorded $446 million in revenues from mineral wealth development in the 2025 year to date, marking a 131 per cent increase compared to the previous year, Badawi told the forum attendees. The increased interest follows government efforts to streamline the sector by amending the mining law and introducing investment-friendly changes in the formula of sharing costs and profits with explorers. The most recent move was parliament's approval of a bill changing the status of the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority (EMRA) to that of an economic authority with its own independent budget. The draft law establishes a regulatory framework modeled after the structure of Egypt's General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), with the goal of simplifying procedures and improving flexibility so that mineral resources can be developed more efficiently and competitively. 'The swift alignment of the mining legislation with international best practice demonstrates unprecedented institutional collaboration. The unified commitment across Government, Parliament, and industry to defined timelines has enabled us to enact critical reforms that will drive sustainable growth in Egypt's mining sector,' said Hoda Mansour, Managing Director and Vice Chair of Sukari Gold Mines, representing AngloGold Ashanti during the forum. MP Mohamed Ismail, who submitted the demand to change the EMRA to an independent economic entity, noted that as a public service authority it is under fragmented oversight, reporting financially to the ministries of planning and finance and technically to the Ministry of Petroleum. This administrative and organisational distortion, he told the House of Representatives, has constrained the authority's performance and led to the mining sector contributing less than one per cent to the country's GDP. EMRA, now known as the Mineral Resources and Mining Industries Authority, will keep 65 per cent of its annual profits and transfer the remaining 35 per cent to the state treasury. Ismail expected the change to mark a turning point for the industry and to increase government revenues from LE2 billion to LE12 billion annually within seven years, raise the sector's GDP share to six per cent in five years, and boost exports from $1.5 billion to $7 billion within a decade. A closer look at the sector reveals that gold still attracts the lion's share of investment. A Fitch Solutions report issued early last year pointed out that in March 2021, the former minister of petroleum and mineral resources, Tarek Al-Molla, had announced that Egypt aimed to become a world-class mining hub, raising its mining exports to $10 billion by 2040, up from $1.6 in 2021. 'While we do not expect export growth to be as strong as these aims, gold production and exports have strong potential. The government is liberalising the gold sector in an attempt to encourage foreign investment, and we expect gold prices to remain high in the coming five years, which will encourage exploration and mine development,' the report noted. According to a government document cited by the news outlet Al-Arabiya, Egypt's gold sector has witnessed remarkable growth, with gold and precious stone exports surging by 74 per cent to reach $2.85 billion in the first 11 months of 2024, up from $1.64 billion during the same period in 2023. While steel makes a lot of news locally owing to the effect of price changes on the construction sector, little attention is given to the volume of production. Egypt, states the Fitch report, is emerging to be Africa's largest steel producer and second-largest producer in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region after Iran. Egypt's steel production continued to grow consistently throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, whereas most other countries experienced at least temporary contractions. Crude steel output reached 9.8 million tons in 2022, the second-largest in MENA after Iran. 'We forecast average annual growth of 1.5 per cent over the next decade as the government supports the industry to reduce reliance on imported steel,' Fitch said. During the period between 2019 and 2024, phosphate production saw the highest rate of growth, according to a report prepared by the Egypt Oil and Gas Group, with an annual average of eight million metric tons (mmt) compared to 3.92 mmt in 2019-2020. This reflects intensified mining activity, strategic investment, and strong export demand supporting Egypt's phosphate industry, it said. The Abu Tartur Plateau in the Western Desert is one of the largest and most promising deposits of phosphates, known for high-grade ore and substantial reserves. A detailed study titled 'Phosphate Mining in Egypt: Geology and Sustainable Development' by Mahmoud Zanaty, a geologist at US firm Haliburton, confirms that Egypt possesses four per cent of global phosphate deposits, totalling 2.78 billion tons, and produces six million tons annually, which accounts for three per cent of global output. Phosphates have diverse applications across several industries, creating vast investment opportunities. Industry observers say that in the light of the projected 25 per cent expansion in cultivated land over the next six years, there will be a higher demand for phosphate-based agricultural products, resulting in a vast domestic market. However, high production costs, especially in the Abu Tartour Plateau, which contains approximately one billion metric tons of reserves but with high impurities, represent a challenge for the sector. There is also fierce competition, especially from neighbouring African and Arab countries, such as Morocco, which has the world's largest phosphate reserves, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. Other minerals highlighted by Egypt's Oil and Gas report showed declining or inconsistent trajectories during the five-year period. Iron production, which averaged 0.05 mmt, dropped sharply by 84 per cent and ceased entirely after 2020-21. 'Egypt's iron production declined sharply due to outdated machinery, heavy financial losses exceeding LE9 billion, inconsistent energy and raw material supplies, and a government decision to liquidate the Egyptian Iron and Steel Company,' the Fitch report said. * A version of this article appears in print in the 24 July, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:

Egyptian Minister of Petroleum on two-day official visit to Cyprus
Egyptian Minister of Petroleum on two-day official visit to Cyprus

See - Sada Elbalad

time4 days ago

  • See - Sada Elbalad

Egyptian Minister of Petroleum on two-day official visit to Cyprus

SEENEWS Stock Watch The Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Karim Badawi, is paying a two-day visit to Cyprus on July 23 and 24, at the invitation of the Minister of Energy, George Papanastasiou. According to a Ministry of Energy press release, the visit is taking place within the framework of the agreed cooperation between the two Ministries for the close progress monitoring of the deposits development project in block 6 of the EEZ of the Republic of Cyprus, following the signing of the Host Government Agreement (HGA) in Egypt on February 17, 2025. As stated, Badawi is accompanied in Cyprus by a delegation from the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and the Egyptian Natural Gas Authority (EGAS). It is noted that during his visit to Cyprus, the Egyptian Minister of Petroleum will also meet with the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, to discuss the progress of the development of both the "Kronos" and "Aphrodite" fields. It is added that immediately after the meeting with the President of the Republic, the two Ministers and technical teams will meet with representatives of ENI and TotalEnergies to be briefed on the progress of technical and commercial consultations for the development of "Kronos". StockWatch in your inbox! Subscribe to our newsletter now and stay tuned for the most important updates. Write your email Submit The Minister of Energy will also have a separate meeting with senior executives of TotalEnergies to review the progress of the company's research program in the EEZ of the Republic of Cyprus, specifically with the Senior Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa, Julien Pouget, and the Vice President for North Africa, Jean Jeylet, the statement concludes. read more CBE: Deposits in Local Currency Hit EGP 5.25 Trillion Morocco Plans to Spend $1 Billion to Mitigate Drought Effect Gov't Approves Final Version of State Ownership Policy Document Egypt's Economy Expected to Grow 5% by the end of 2022/23- Minister Qatar Agrees to Supply Germany with LNG for 15 Years Business Oil Prices Descend amid Anticipation of Additional US Strategic Petroleum Reserves Business Suez Canal Records $704 Million, Historically Highest Monthly Revenue Business Egypt's Stock Exchange Earns EGP 4.9 Billion on Tuesday Business Wheat delivery season commences on April 15 News Israeli-Linked Hadassah Clinic in Moscow Treats Wounded Iranian IRGC Fighters Arts & Culture "Jurassic World Rebirth" Gets Streaming Date News China Launches Largest Ever Aircraft Carrier Videos & Features Tragedy Overshadows MC Alger Championship Celebration: One Fan Dead, 11 Injured After Stadium Fall Lifestyle Get to Know 2025 Eid Al Adha Prayer Times in Egypt Arts & Culture South Korean Actress Kang Seo-ha Dies at 31 after Cancer Battle Business Egyptian Pound Undervalued by 30%, Says Goldman Sachs Sports Get to Know 2025 WWE Evolution Results News "Tensions Escalate: Iran Probes Allegations of Indian Tech Collaboration with Israeli Intelligence" News Flights suspended at Port Sudan Airport after Drone Attacks

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store