A record year for Egyptian imports of Israeli gas: Egypt imported a record 981 mn cfd of natural gas from Israel last year, up 18.2% y-o-y, according to a report from industry publication Mees. The increase was driven by a growing gas deficit thanks to a dip in local gas production that saw production fall to a seven-year low of 4.5 bn cfd in October.

Egypt’s imports of Israeli gas have been steadily increasing for years now, with Israeli gas imports rising to their current level from just 202 mn cfd in 2020. Israel’s NewMed Energy — which owns 45.3% of the Leviathan gas field — also recently floated the prospect of doubling Egypt-bound shipments to more than 2 bn cfd by 2030. On the other hand, the report says Egypt’s only alternative is LNG imports — whose spot prices currently sit at around USD 14 per mn BTU, significantly costlier than Israel’s USD 6.5 per mn BTU imports.

Capacity constraints to cap Israeli gas shipments in 2025: Israeli gas exports to Egypt may face a cap until late 2025 due to infrastructure limitations, according to the report. Even with Israel on track to boost its exporting capacity with a number of infrastructure and field expansion projects due for completion in the near future, “the volume that Egypt can import from Israel will then be capped at the capacity of the Arish-Port Said pipeline, which currently stands at 1.4 bn cfd.” While there are plans to add a second pipeline running parallel to the Arish-Port said pipeline to double its capacity, it won’t be operational until 2H 2027, the report said.

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