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Egypt Rents Floating Liquefied Gas Unit to Support Energy Security

Camel riders are seen at the foot of Khafre Pyramid in Giza, south of the Egyptian capital. (AFP)
Camel riders are seen at the foot of Khafre Pyramid in Giza, south of the Egyptian capital. (AFP)
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Egypt Rents Floating Liquefied Gas Unit to Support Energy Security

Camel riders are seen at the foot of Khafre Pyramid in Giza, south of the Egyptian capital. (AFP)
Camel riders are seen at the foot of Khafre Pyramid in Giza, south of the Egyptian capital. (AFP)

The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum announced on Thursday that the country’s Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) has concluded an agreement with Norway’s Hoegh LNG to rent the Hoegh Galleon floating unit for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

In a statement, the ministry said the unit will be rented for storage and regasification “to secure additional needs for domestic consumption during the summer.”

Hoegh LNG said the unit would be leased for an interim period from June 2024 to February 2026 and deployed in Ain Sokhna on the Red Sea. The aim of the agreement was “to support energy security in Egypt”, the company said in a statement.

Egypt is expected to increase LNG imports during the summer months to meet high demand that caused a wave of power outages last summer, which shocked Egyptians who had been used to a decade of reliable power supplies by the gas producer.

Sources told Reuters that the government bought at least two LNG cargoes in April and is expected to purchase up to 20 over the spring and summer to prepare for increasing power demand.

Returning to imports would reverse the most populous Arab country’s position as a natural gas exporter in recent years, Reuters reported.

Egypt, which faces a growing demand for gas from its population of about 106 million people, is seeking to become a regional gas supplier, but has not made other major discoveries than the giant Zohr field in 2015.

Figures released by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed that in 2023, total natural gas production in Egypt decreased by 11.5 percent on an annual basis to reach about 59.29 billion cubic meters, the lowest production level since 2017.

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Euro Zone Poised to Enter Trade Quagmire as Trump Wins

A container ship unloads its cargo in the German port of Hamburg (Reuters)
A container ship unloads its cargo in the German port of Hamburg (Reuters)
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Euro Zone Poised to Enter Trade Quagmire as Trump Wins

A container ship unloads its cargo in the German port of Hamburg (Reuters)
A container ship unloads its cargo in the German port of Hamburg (Reuters)

As Trump 2.0 becomes a reality, Europe is poised to enter a new geopolitical and trade quagmire with its biggest trading partner.

Donald Trump's victory may harm Europe's economy as proposed 10% US tariffs risk hitting European exports such as cars and chemicals, eroding Europe's GDP by up to 1.5% or about €260 billion.

Analysts warn of European Central Bank (ECB) rate cuts, euro weakness, and a recession risk.

According to several economic analyses, there is broad agreement that Trump's proposed 10% universal tariff on all US imports may significantly disrupt European growth, intensify monetary policy divergence, and strain key trade-dependent sectors such as autos and chemicals.

The long-term effects on Europe's economic resilience could prove even more significant if tariffs lead to protracted trade conflicts, prompting the European Central Bank (ECB) to respond with aggressive rate cuts to cushion the impact, according to Euronews.

Trump's proposed across-the-board tariff on imports, including those from Europe, could profoundly impact sectors such as cars and chemicals, which rely heavily on US exports.

Data from the European Commission shows that the European Union exported €502.3 billion in goods to the US in 2023, making up a fifth of all non-European Union exports.

European exports to the US are led by machinery and vehicles (€207.6 billion), chemicals (€137.4 billion), and other manufactured goods (€103.7 billion), which together comprise nearly 90% of the bloc's transatlantic exports.

ABN Amro analysts, including head of macro research Bill Diviney, warn that tariffs “would cause a collapse in exports to the US,” with trade-oriented economies such as Germany and the Netherlands likely to be hardest hit.

According to the Dutch bank, Trump's tariffs would shave approximately 1.5 percentage points off European growth, translating to a potential €260 bn economic loss based on Europe's estimated 2024 GDP of €17.4 tn.

Should Europe's growth falter under Trump's tariffs, the European Central Bank (ECB) may be compelled to respond aggressively, slashing rates to near zero by 2025.

In contrast, the US Federal Reserve may continue raising rates, leading to “one of the biggest and most sustained monetary policy divergences” between the ECB and the Fed since the euro's inception in 1999.

Dirk Schumacher, head of European macro research at Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking Germany, suggests that a 10% tariff increase could reduce GDP by approximately 0.5% in Germany, 0.3% in France, 0.4% in Italy, and 0.2% in Spain.

Schumacher warns that “the euro area could slide into recession in response to higher tariffs.”

According to Goldman Sachs' economists James Moberly and Sven Jari Stehn, the broad tariff would likely erode eurozone GDP by approximately 1%.

Goldman Sachs analysts project that a 1% GDP loss translates into a hit to earnings per share (EPS) for European firms by 6-7 percentage points, which would be sufficient to erase expected EPS growth for 2025.