The Ministry of Petroleum has postponed a tender to rent a third gasification ship with capacity of 750m cubic feet of liquefied gas per day. The tender was launched in July for delivery by mid-2017. Minister of Petroleum Tarek El Molla said the results from the reassessment of natural gas projects to connect production to the national gas network showed that the local market does not require increased gas imports in 2017. "Natural gas projects, and the imported amounts through the two gasification ships and the Jordan line will be sufficient for the local market's needs," he said. The tender for a third gasification ship in Sumed port in Ain Sukhna will be postponed until there is a need for higher gas provisions. Italian company Eni aims to add 900m cubic feet of gas to the national grid by 2017 or early 2018. Production will gradually increase to 2.7bn cubic feet by 2020. The first phase of the development project for northern Alexandria and western Mediterranean will produce 450m cubic feet per day in the third quarter of 2017, while total production of the project will reach 1.3bn cubic feet. The project is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2019. About 1.2bn cubic feet of gas are provided through two gasification ships. The tender for the third ship was intended to provide natural gas needs for economic development over the next five years, especially with three large electricity generation plants gradually entering into service by May 2018, El Molla said. A source in the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) said local production of gas will reach 5bn cubic feet per day by the end of 2017, and will continue to increase when the production of northern Alexandria and Zohr fields are added consecutively to the production line, up to 2020. EGAS launched a tender in July to rent a third gasification ship. Companies which applied for the tender included Norwegian company Hog, American company Accelerate, and the Singaporean-Norwegian company PW Gas.
