Egypt gas exports up 4% in 2012

Egypt exported $22 billion worth of natural gas last year, 4 percent more than in 2011, according to a report on Economic and Social Indicators released in February by the state-run Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC). The country exports dry and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe, the US and South Korea. It also continues to supply a handful of Arab countries through the Arab Gas Pipeline, completed in 2004, despite a series of attacks on the pipeline since Egypt's January 25 Revolution, which disrupted the natural gas exports. Egypt produced 45.8 million tonnes of natural gas in 2012, a 0.85 percent drop from the previous years' 46.1 million tonnes, according to the report. Domestic consumption of natural gas, however, rose to 39.2 million tonnes in 2012, exceeding the previous years' figure by a significant 5.8 percent. Egypt has two liquefied natural gas plants and a gas export pipeline, but industry sources say the government has diverted some gas contracted for export to meet the growing demands of the domestic market. 57 percent of domestic consumption gas was geared to electricity generation, compared to 56 percent in 2011. The country has experienced increasingly frequent power cuts since the summer of 2012 due in part to a shortage in natural gas. In January 2013, Egypt issued an international tender to import liquefied natural gas to meet its domestic needs; the results will be announced by the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), according to Hamdi Abdel- Aziz, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Petroleum. ahram