Iran War Doubles Egypt’s LNG Bill as Gas Output Keeps Falling

The war on Iran has doubled what Egypt pays for imported LNG, and Cairo is deferring cargoes into 2027 and burning fuel oil in its power plants to hold down the bill. 63 bcf/d in August as older fields declined faster than new wells came online, and the petroleum ministry has now extended the deadline for bids on 14 exploration blocks meant to reverse that decline to December 14 after companies asked for more time.

QatarEnergy has kept its LNG deliveries under force majeure since April, and on October 28 it extended that to the end of December. A government official told Asharq Bloomberg that the price of a single LNG cargo has risen as much as 100% since September, to more than $100 million.