Italian energy firm Eni said on Monday its Damietta liquefaction plant in Egypt has shipped its first cargo since 2012.
To remind, Eni’s officials said last week the 5 mtpa plant had already produced enough LNG to load the first cargo.
The facility located on the Mediterranean coast, about 60 km northwest of Port Said, has been idle since November 2012, but a recent deal between Egypt, Eni, and Naturgy allowed for the restart of the facility.
Following Naturgy’s departure, Eni owns 50 percent in SEGAS, the owner of the liquefaction plant, while the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) owns 40 percent, and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) holds 10 percent.
Eni says the lifting of the first cargo represents an “important milestone in the process to complete the agreement reached on December 1st 2020 aimed at settling all pending disputes between the parties and at restarting the operations at the plant.”
“At this stage the agreement has already received all the authorizations of the competent authorities and its final closing is expected in the first half of March,” the Italian firm said.
Eni added the deal comes at an “important moment, when also thanks to the fast time to market of Eni’s natural gas discoveries, especially the ones in the Zohr and Nooros fields, Egypt has regained its full capacity to meet domestic gas demand and can allocate surplus production for export through its LNG plants.”
First LNG cargo goes to Bangladesh
Eni did not reveal any further information regarding the first shipment but the Damietta Port Authority confirmed the first shipment left onboard the 162,000-cbm Golar Glacier.
The vessel is heading towards Bangladesh, it said.
The Damietta plant originally started production back in 2004 with the first cargo leaving in January 2005.
It consists of a single train, jetty, and two LNG storage tanks with a capacity of 300,000 cbm.
The facility stopped operations in 2012 due to declining domestic production, but new gas finds allowed the partners to restart the plant.
Besides the Damietta LNG facility, Egypt also has the Shell-operated Egyptian LNG facilities, located at Idku.