Egypt studies two repair options to restore Energos Winter to service

Egypt is now weighing a roughly six-week repair by state-owned Petrojet for its damaged Damietta FSRU, alongside the option of sending the vessel to Turkey for a roughly one-month repair, Asharq Business reports, citing a government official. The vessel still has roughly 70k cbm of LNG onboard, which must be offloaded at either Ain Sokhna or Damietta before repairs can begin.

The government is bringing in a second leased FSRU to guard against the same supply risks. A 150k cbm unit is expected to start operations at Ain Sokhna in September, alongside the Gaslog Salem, at a lease cost of roughly USD 75k a day — around USD 2.25 mn a month — Asharq Business separately reports, citing a government official. The official said the lease is aimed at building emergency reserves in case of delayed shipments or lower Israeli pipeline imports.

Until one of those repair timelines plays out, Egypt is running its Mediterranean LNG capacity on buffer stock and workarounds. Damietta took in around 150k cbm of LNG late last week, pushing stored volumes to around 270k cbm against 300k cbm of capacity — about 90% full. The government says those stocks can backstop the FSRUs at Ain Sokhna if scheduled cargoes there run late, turning Damietta’s tanks into a temporary buffer even though the port can’t regasify the LNG right now.

That’s stacked on top of the workarounds Egypt has leaned on since the strike. Egypt redirected a Damietta-bound LNG cargo to Jordan’s Aqaba port after Energos went offline and increased Israeli pipeline imports. The country can also draw up to 450 mmcf / d from the Excelerate Acadia at Aqaba through the Arab Gas Pipeline under its arrangement with Jordan.

ALSO- Egypt is weighing three bids for its first permanent onshore regasification terminal at Ain Sokhna, initially capable of feeding 1 bcf / d into the grid. It was also planning for a fixed regasification unit at the Damietta complex dating back to at least 2024, when Egypt and Eni were discussing a roughly USD 150 mn onshore facility alongside additional LNG storage.

Why it matters: The strike on Energos Winter left Damietta’s port without the ability to turn the stored LNG into gas that feeds into the national grid. The 270k cbm sitting in the tanks counts as a reserve but can’t do the FSRU’s job — repairing Energos Winter is what restores the storage-to-regasification-to-grid handoff.

That handoff matters more now because Egypt's FSRU fleet isn't spread out the way it was. The country's four operating units have a combined capacity of around 2.8 bcf/d — three at Ain Sokhna and one at Aqaba. Losing its only Mediterranean-facing FSRU while the rest of the fleet sits on the Red Sea leaves Egypt without a route to turn LNG into pipeline gas that doesn't run through Sokhna or a neighboring country.

And that repair bill comes on top of an LNG system Egypt is already spending heavily to keep running. LNG accounted for nearly 72% of the country’s gas imports in 1Q 2026, up from virtually nothing in 2023, while its gas import bill is expected to reach USD 10.7 bn in FY 2026/2027.

What to watch: The damage assessment and repair decision that will determine whether Energos Winter heads to Turkey or stays in Egypt, along with where its 70k cbm LNG cargo is offloaded. The repair timeline and final cost will only become clear once the assessment is complete.