LNG bunkering hub planned on the Suez Canal

Egypt is planning to build an LNG bunker hub on the Suez Canal using its own resources, thereby competing with the existing LNG hubs in Rotterdam and Singapore. At the beginning of the year, Egyptian Natural Gas Holding (Egas), Norwegian Kanfer Shipping and Danish Leth Suez Transit signed a letter of intent with the aim of establishing LNG bunkering services in the Egyptian Mediterranean, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. To this end, a newly established joint venture will charter an LNG bunker vessel from Kanfer for daily operations.

Thanks to the Suez Canal, Egypt is a strategically important location for international shipping and, according to the joint venture partners, could gain importance for bunker calls between Europe and Asia. "More than 20,000 ships pass through the Suez Canal every year, and all ships have waiting times before the daily convoy starts. They can utilise this time efficiently by refilling their bunkers in Port Said or Suez. The joint venture partners are aiming to have the bunkering infrastructure up and running by 2025 at the latest. One of Egypt's main advantages as an LNG bunkering location is that the country has its own natural gas reserves and liquefaction plants, which gives it a competitive advantage over other LNG bunkering centres, as they have to import LNG first.