Egypt received a cargo of liquefied natural gas from Australia after the exporter sent two shipments to the region in the past two years, signaling increasing demand, reports The Daily Star.
The Woodside Rogers tanker arrived at Egypt's Ain Sokhna terminal Thursday after loading at Australia's Dampier port on May 12, according to ship-tracking data on Bloomberg.
The 159,760-cubic-metre cargo aboard the Woodside Rogers loaded at the port of Dampier, which serves as the loading point for two LNG export plants, Pluto and North West Shelf.
Both plants are operated by Woodside Petroleum.
Egypt has emerged as a major new market for LNG as it looks to ease its worst energy crunch in decades. Falling output and rising demand have transformed it from an oil and gas exporter to a net importer.
Middle East and Europe will absorb excess supply amid rising output from plants in Oceania, Andy Flower, a former BP Plc executive and now an independent consultant, said.
“Middle East gas demand is often underestimated,” Leslie Palti-Guzman, a New York-based director of global gas at The Rapidan Group, said. “It will be a big part of the growth story for gas demand, and especially LNG as new markets in the region become importers.”
This year Egypt secured $2.2 billion worth of LNG largely from European traders in its first-ever tender to supply a newly installed import terminal moored on its Red Sea coast.