Egypt has received liquefied natural gas (LNG) export bids from Saudi Aramco, QatarEnergy (formerly Qatargas), the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), and Algeria’s Sonatrach as the country grapples with a worsening gas crisis.
According to a report by Asharq Business, the state-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) is currently reviewing the technical and financial details of the proposals.
These bids follow Egypt’s urgent appeal to international oil and gas companies to ramp up gas production in response to falling output and surging domestic demand.
Egypt’s natural gas production has been steadily declining, hitting a seven-year low in September 2024.
Current output is estimated at 4.2 billion cubic feet per day—well below the 6.2 billion cubic feet per day required to meet local consumption.
This supply gap is primarily due to reduced output from key fields like Zohr and rising energy demand, particularly from the power sector.
As a result, Egypt has shifted from being a net exporter to a net importer of natural gas, prompting the government to diversify its supply sources and secure long-term LNG contracts.
In a bid to stabilize the energy sector, the government recently paid $1.2 billion to clear part of its arrears to major LNG suppliers.
The LNG export bids from Aramco, QatarEnergy, ADNOC, and Sonatrach reflect a growing interest from regional energy giants in Egypt’s increasingly active LNG import market.
In addition to these offers, Egypt recently signed LNG procurement deals with Shell and TotalEnergies valued at about $3 billion for 60 cargoes scheduled for 2025.
However, this falls short of the government’s initial plan to import between 155 and 160 LNG shipments this year.
To expand its import capacity, Egypt is also planning to deploy several floating gas processing units, enabling more efficient handling and regasification of incoming LNG volumes.