Egypt will receive the first shipment of Qatari Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) by the end of May under a gas swap deal that includes the foreign companies extracting gas locally, state-run daily newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Monday.

Under the arrangement, Egypt will buy the share of foreign companies in locally extracted LNG. The foreign companies will then take the LNG being imported from Qatar. The amount of awaited Qatari gas imports is yet to be revealed.

Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum Osama Kamal told Ahram Online in an interview in April that a gas swap is better for the country as the government would get gas directly from domestic wells rather than building facilities or renting the floating vessel.

The shipment is part of a total of 18 batches have been pledged by the gas-rich Gulf state to the Egyptian government to help within meeting the country’s electricity needs to avoid blackouts in the summer.

Egypt is currently negotiating with Qatar over setting LNG prices, and to paying for the LNG over several phases, Al-Ahram added.

Last month, the Ministry of Petroleum announced that it planned to import additional fuel quantities this summer worth between $500 million and $600 million to meet rising electricity demand and avoid increasingly frequent power outages.

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/70820.aspx