Egyptian LNG Terminal

Part of the Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker, a Global Energy Monitor project.

Download full dataset

Report an error

Egyptian LNG Terminal, also known as Egyptian Idku, ELNG Terminal, and ELNG IDCO, is an LNG export terminal in Egypt with units that are operating.

Location

Table 1: Location details

Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
T1	Idku, Beheira, Egypt	31.3490481, 30.3186466 (exact)
T2	Idku, Beheira, Egypt	31.3490481, 30.3186466 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the terminal:

Loading map...

Project Details

Table 2: Infrastructure details

mtpa = million tonnes per year

Name	Facility type	Status	Capacity	Total terminal capacity	Offshore	Associated infrastructure
T1	export	operating	3.6 mtpa	7.2 mtpa	False	–
T2	export	operating	3.6 mtpa	7.2 mtpa	False	–

Table 3: Cost

Name	Facility type	Cost	Total known terminal costs
T1	export	US$1,120,000,000	US$2,085,000,000
T2	export	US$965,000,000	US$2,085,000,000

Financing

No financing data available.

Table 4: Project timeline

FID = Final Investment Decision, used by some developers to indicate a project will move forward

Name	Facility type	Status	Proposal year	FID year	Construction year	Operating year	Inactive year
T1	export	operating	–	–	–	2005	–
T2	export	operating	–	–	–	2005	–

Ownership

Table 5: Ownership

Name	Facility type	Status	Owners	Parent companies	Operator
T1	export	operating	El Beheira Natural Gas Liquefaction Co [100%]	Petroliam Nasional Bhd [35.5%]; Shell PLC [35.5%]; Egyptian General Petroleum Corp [12.0%]; TotalEnergies SE [5.0%]; EGAS	Egyptian LNG
T2	export	operating	Idku Natural Gas Liquefaction Co [100%]	Petroliam Nasional Bhd [38.0%]; Shell PLC [38.0%]; Egyptian General Petroleum Corp [12.0%]; EGAS	Egyptian LNG

Background

Egyptian LNG Terminal (ELNG Terminal) is an LNG terminal in Beheira, Egypt on the Mediterranean coast. The facility is also called Idku LNG. It is comprised of two production trains supplied by the Simian Sienna Gas Field and Sapphire Gas Field. The terminal was designed to allow for easy expansion of up to four more production trains.

Egypt's domestic market had diverted natural gas feedstock from export plants. Operations at the ELNG terminal greatly decreased in 2014. Political upheaval caused power shortages and forced Egypt to save gas for is own use. ELNG temporarily ceased exports in 2015, but was not formally decommissioned.

In 2015 Egypt became a net LNG importer. The International Gas Union predicted new gas drilling in the Zohr gas field of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as Egypt's West Nile Delta, could restore Egypt's status as a net gas exporter by 2021.

Egypt started exporting limited amounts of LNG from the Egyptian LNG terminal in September 2016 to keep equipment running. It planned to run the facility at full capacity for export in 2020 or 2021.

According to the International Gas Union’s World LNG 2017 report, Egypt was the 18th largest LNG exporter by share between 2015 and 2016.

As a result of record low LNG prices fueled by COVID-19, the terminal was shut in with export cargoes not expected to start up again until mid-July 2020.

In February 2023, LNG Prime reported that Shell and Energean were studying the concept of building a carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant for the facility.

In July 2023, however, the Egypt LNG Terminal halted production because of an increased domestic demand for gas in Egypt. Production at the Damietta facility was also temporarily halted in May of that same year. In October 2023, production at the Egypt LNG Terminal resumed, but was again halted in May of 2024 due to another seasonal uptick in domestic demand during the summer months in Egypt. Egypt has needed to import LNG shipments to keep up with the demand.

In March 2025, gas flow to the Egyptian LNG terminal resumed.

In 2026, the terminal has reported occasional exports despite Egypt’s broader import dependence, including a cargo to Canada on 11 January 2026 and a cargo to Türkiye on 26 January 2026.

Israel/Cyprus Gas Import

Forbes reported in November 2015 that if Egypt joined Cyrus and Israel in a venture to import gas to Egypt, the three countries would have enough infrastructure to form a regional Eastern Mediterranean gas hub.

Bloomberg reported in 2016 that Israeli companies had been negotiating to build an undersea pipeline from Israel's Leviathan field to Shell's Egyptian LNG Terminal Idku. Israel’s reconciliation agreement with Turkey created the possibility that Israel could build the pipeline north to Turkey’s state-owned BOTAŞ Petroleum Pipeline Corporation, or build pipelines to both Egypt's LNG and Turkey. Leviathan development partners, Israeli's company Delek Group and U.S. partner Noble Energy, and Israel’s energy minister claimed there was enough gas to do both projects. On the other hand, a senior fellow at DC's Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center said there was likely not enough gas for both projects.

Leviathan's partners claimed the field held 620 billion cubic meters of gas. The Israel government claimed the estimate was 20 percent less.

Bloomberg reported in August 2017 that Shell was considering buying Israeli gas from the Leviathan field and Cypriot gas from the Aphrodite field for the Egyptian LNG Terminal. Shell owns 35% of the Aphrodite field and was considering buying about 5 billion cubic meters of gas a year from the Leviathan field. Egypt's underdeveloped Zohr field, discovered in 2015, is geographically close to Aphrodite and Leviathan. This would ideally allow the three fields to coordinate their development.

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of LNG terminals, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.