Chevron announces resumption of gas flows to Egypt

On Monday, the company said that it has resumed the supply of natural gas from the offshore Tamar field.

The action came after over a month of halting operations of the field in response to the Israeli side’s instructions amid the Israeli war on Gaza.

The Tamar field is a major source of natural gas for Israel's power generators.

"Chevron Mediterranean Limited (CML) can confirm that on November 14, 2023, the natural gas flow through the EMG pipeline resumed," it said in a statement.

World Oil also reported that the EMG pipeline that runs from Israel’s Ashkelon, just north of the Gaza Strip, to Egypt’s Arish is also probably to resume this week, citing three people familiar with the operations.

The company added that shipments were being routed through a longer route in Jordan, while the more direct link was closed in October. 

The suspension of natural gas flows from the Tamar field has resulted in a severe shortage of natural gas required to operate the electricity generators in Egypt. As a result, the government imposes up to three hours of power outages per day to lower the pressure on natural gas usage.

At the end of October, the Egyptian cabinet said that gas imports had fallen to zero.

Imports are expected to increase to 650 mmcf/d on Thursday and to the normal level of 800 mmcf/d early next week, from about 250 mmcf/d seen earlier in November, according to Bloomberg.

Egypt depends on Israeli gas to meet the domestic demand and exports the excess alongside its liquefied natural gas mainly to the European market.

Egypt’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports could be 40 percent lower this winter than forecast in October, according to BloombergNEF projections.

The country shipped 80 percent of its LNG to Europe in 2022 as the continent is trying to replace Russian pipeline gas after the Russian war on Ukraine.