Egypt Restarts LNG Exports from Idku
Egypt has restarted export of LNG from the Idku LNG plant, according to Egyptian media. In the last three months, Shell exported from Idku three cargoes, with gas supplied from its Borollos gas field which is producing at a rate of 200mn ft³/d. The company is targeting a shipment every 20 days and seeking to increase volumes to 250mn ft³/d That is about a quarter of the facility's capacity. Shell did not provide an update for NGW.
The Egyptian petroleum ministry is targeting operating Idku at full capacity from 2020. The renewal of export is needed in order for the Idku plant to repay the $2bn loan that the plant cost, at $200mn/yr, according to Egyptian media.
One of the gas resources for Idku might be the Aphrodite gas field offshore Cyprus, owned by Noble Energy 35%, Shell 35% and Delek Group 30%.
However, Noble Energy and Delek might want to link the development of Aphrodite to that of Leviathan, the neighbouring giant gas field offshore Israel. Noble and Delek are the two main shareholders in Leviathan. It may be that Aphrodite in the short term will be the only gas supplier to Idku but in the medium term Leviathan's gas might reach Egypt through the same pipeline.
Egypt and Cyprus signed at the end of August an agreement for a subsea pipeline that will connect the two countries. That agreement followed one from a year earlier in which the two governments agreed to co-operate in developing and producing gas from Aphrodite.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, state gas importer Egas confirmed it has postponed a third floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) that was planned to be deployed in the next few months. This was due to an increase in gas production in Egypt which since last April grew by 600bn ft³/d to 4.45bn ft³/d.
Egypt imports about 1bn ft³/d of natural gas through two FSRUs. Lately Egypt's petroleum minister Tarek El Molla said that Egypt would reach natural gas sufficiency by fiscal year 2020/2021, according online newspaper Daily News Egypt.
Idku jetty and storage tanks
(Credit: Egas)
Egypt used to be a major exporter but energy companies cut their exploration and production budgets while government debts to those companies accumulated. Only improved prices and debts payments, negotiated between the energy companies and the Egyptian authorities, enabled resuming gas exploration and a higher level of production.
The World Bank meanwhile signed a $1bn loan agreement with Egypt's ministry of international cooperation December 22 to support the country’s economic reform programme. The loan was agreed two days earlier on December 20. Repayable over 35 years, it is aimed at spurring private sector economic growth and energy security. The bank's current portfolio in Egypt spans 25 projects for a total commitment of about $8.5bn.
Ya'acov Zalel