The Clap:
Government-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) is reportedly looking to issue an international tender in a bid to secure no less than 17 liquified natural gas (LNG) shipments over the next three months, Bloomberg reports. This comes after Egypt became a net importer of LNG in recent months following a drop in domestic production.
The specifics:
The tender will reportedly remain open until Wednesday, the 26th of June, and it is likely only Atlantic LNG supply would be competitive in the offer, Reuters reported, citing the head of LNG pricing at commodity pricing agency Argus.
Financing structure:
EGAS is targeting deferred payments of up to six months, and will likely “eventually pay more than the average premium of between USD 1 and USD 2 per million British thermal unit to the Dutch TTF hub gas price,” the newswire notes.
The timeline:
The state-owned company is eying importing seven LNG cargoes next month in July, six shipments in August, and four others the following month.
We knew this was coming:
At the start of the month, reports circulated on Egypt’s intention to issue an international tender to import about 15 shipments of LNG through October. The import strategy — expected to average around USD 120 million a month for three shipments — follows implementation of daily power cuts in a bid to save as much USD 300 million per month.
In other news:
Pharos Energy received USD 10 million of its dues from the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, amounting to 26.7% of the total arrears Egypt owes to the British company. As of March, arrears to international oil and gas companies were estimated to hover at around USD 6.25 billion, of which USD 1.5 billion — approximately 20% — were settled following fresh inflows of hard currency into the state’s purse.
