Egypt eyes floating LNG terminal previously deployed in Germany: ministry

Egypt is interested in leasing a floating LNG import terminal deployed at the German port of Mukran, with an Egyptian delegation set to complete the contractual terms on a visit to Germany before the end of March.

In a Facebook post late March 11, the Egyptian energy ministry said Germany was also interested in importing gas produced in Cyprus and exported via Egypt's LNG facilities.

Egypt's energy minister Karim Badawi and Philipp Steinberg, a senior official at Germany's economy ministry, met for discussions on these and other topics on the sidelines of the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston.

"The Egyptian side's use of the surplus regasification capacity in Germany was discussed through the lease of one of the FSRUs [floating storage and regasification units] in the port of Mukran," the Egyptian ministry said.

"The two sides agreed to arrange a visit for a delegation of specialists from the Egyptian side to Germany by the end of this month to complete the contractual terms for the use of the unit," it said.

Germany's privately owned Deutsche ReGas last summer deployed two FSRUs at its terminal at Mukran on the island of Rugen -- the Energos Power and the Neptune -- with a total regasification capacity of 13.5 Bcm/year.

However, Deutsche ReGas removed the Energos Power from the site in mid-February after terminating its charter contract with the German economy ministry.

According to shipping data from S&P Global Commodity Insights, the Energos Power remained anchored off the coast of Rugen as of March 12.

Egyptian imports

Despite being an LNG exporter for many years, upstream production problems have forced Egypt to import gas to meet domestic power needs, mostly during peak demand period during the summer months.

Egypt deployed the Hoegh Galleon FSRU at the port of Ain Sokhna last summer, with imports beginning in June 2024.

It also plans to deploy another FSRU at Ain Sokhna under an agreement between state-owned EGAS and US LNG company New Fortress Energy in the second half of 2025.

Egypt has also been in talks to lease the Ertugrul Gazi FSRU vessel currently located at the Turkish port of Dortyol or the Vasant-1 deployed in the Gulf of Saros in northeast Turkey.

Last month, market sources said Egypt had signed agreements worth around $3 billion with Shell and TotalEnergies to secure 60 shipments of LNG for 2025.

The country previously issued 20-cargo tenders for both Q3 and Q4 last year, bringing a total of 2.5 million mt of LNG into the first FSRU at Ain Sokhna, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights data.

Additionally, most of Jordan's 900,000 mt of imports in 2024 into the Aqaba terminal were also primarily to satisfy Egyptian demand.

Most recently, Egypt issued a four-cargo tender for February and March delivery.

Cyprus gas

The Egyptian ministry also said March 11 that it discussed with Germany ways to enhance cooperation to achieve energy security in the two countries.

"The German side's purchase of Cypriot gas was discussed within the framework of the agreement recently concluded between Egypt and Cyprus to transport gas produced from Cypriot fields to Egypt via Egyptian liquefaction facilities," it said.

Under agreements signed last month, gas from the Cronos and Aphrodite gas field offshore Cyprus would be piped to Egypt from where it would either be exported as LNG or used in the domestic Egyptian market.

Egypt has not exported LNG since May 2024 as its domestic gas production slumped.

Egypt's gas production totaled just 3.79 Bcm in December 2024, according to the latest data published by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative.

That is up slightly on output in November last year, which was the lowest monthly production level since February 2017 and well down on a recent peak of 6.1 Bcm in March 2021.

In December, it imported some 535 million cu m as LNG and a further 934 million cu m as pipeline gas from Israel to help meet demand of 5.22 Bcm.

Egypt sees imports of gas from Cyprus as a way to provide feedgas for its two LNG export facilities.