Cairo, Egypt | – Egypt’s state-owned gas holding company, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) will purchase 55 cargoes of LNG from seven companies, the gas company announced on Monday. Successful bidders include Shell, PetroChina, Noble Group, Trafigura, Vitol, EDF Trading and Gas Natural. EGAS launched the tender for 45 LNG cargoes in July. The 55 cargoes settled for purchase, 10 more than initially planned, represent 4.68 bcm of natural gas, or about a tenth of the country’s annual consumption. The cargoes are designated for shipment in …

Cairo, Egypt | – Egypt expects to agree additional liquefied natural gas (LNG) import deals with Shell and Total and is close to paying BG Group more for the gas it produces offshore, its oil minister said. Sherif Ismail outlined several measures intended to stave off Egypt’s worst energy shortages in decades, including launching a new round of talks to secure LNG until 2020 when the country hopes to kick its reliance on the fuel. “There is a very high possibility that Total and Shell …

Cairo, Egypt | – Egypt hopes to halt liquefied natural gas imports in 2020, Oil Minister Sherif Ismail said on Monday, as projects to develop its own gas fields are completed. The Arab world’s most populous nation is struggling to cope with energy demand from a population of 85 million. Demand now outstrips production of oil and gas from fields in the Western Desert, Nile Delta and offshore. Ismail told Reuters in an interview that “we are targeting to stop importing gas with … the …