en.Wedoany.com Reported - Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources is transferring a shipment of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) stored at the Damietta liquefaction plant to storage facilities near Sokhna to secure gas supply during the peak summer electricity demand period. The transport operation is being carried out by the LNG carrier GASLOG SALEM.

An Egyptian government official, who spoke to CNN Economy on condition of anonymity, said the GASLOG SALEM carrier departed from the Damietta liquefaction plant with the LNG shipment on Wednesday evening and is expected to dock at Sokhna port over the weekend. The vessel had been damaged in a previous fire incident at Damietta port.

Late last month, a fire broke out involving a floating storage and regasification unit and a storage vessel docked at Damietta port. On July 29, 2026, preliminary investigations into the fire incident involving the two vessels at Damietta port confirmed that it was caused by a drone.

In early July, Egypt received an LNG shipment through the Damietta liquefaction plant to secure and meet the country's natural gas and energy demand during the summer consumption surge. The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources decided to charter an LNG carrier to store the shipment near Sokhna as an emergency reserve, to be used if any contracted cargo arrives late. The vessel is scheduled to remain docked at Sokhna port for up to 120 days.

Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum began importing LNG in April 2024 to address the growing natural gas demand from the power sector and reduce power outages over the past months. Starting in early 2025, the ministry expanded LNG imports by signing contracts to charter four floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), three of which are docked in the Sokhna area.

Egypt currently has two natural gas liquefaction plants. The Idku liquefaction plant, owned by Egyptian LNG, has two liquefaction trains with a combined processing capacity of approximately 1.35 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. The Damietta liquefaction plant, jointly owned by Italy's Eni, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), has a single train with a processing capacity of approximately 750 million cubic feet per day, used for exporting Egyptian natural gas.

Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources estimates that over the four summer months, the bill for LNG and imported diesel to meet the energy needs of Egypt's power plants and industrial sector amounts to approximately $10 billion, including the cost of chartering the four regasification units. The regasification units convert imported liquid LNG into gaseous form, which is then injected into Egypt's national gas grid.