Marsa El Brega LNG Terminal

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Marsa El Brega LNG Terminal, also known as Mjarsa Al-Brega, is an LNG export terminal in Libya with units that are mothballed.

Location

Table 1: Location details

Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
T1	Brega, Al Wahat, Cyrenaica, Libya	30.40675, 19.5935 (exact)
T2	Brega, Al Wahat, Cyrenaica, Libya	30.40675, 19.5935 (exact)
T3	Brega, Al Wahat, Cyrenaica, Libya	30.40675, 19.5935 (exact)
T4	Brega, Al Wahat, Cyrenaica, Libya	30.40675, 19.5935 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the terminal:

Loading map...

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Project Details

Table 2: Infrastructure details

mtpa = million tonnes per year

Name	Facility type	Status	Capacity	Total terminal capacity	Offshore	Associated infrastructure
T1	export	mothballed	0.8 mtpa	3.2 mtpa	False	–
T2	export	mothballed	0.8 mtpa	3.2 mtpa	False	–
T3	export	mothballed	0.8 mtpa	3.2 mtpa	False	–
T4	export	mothballed	0.8 mtpa	3.2 mtpa	False	–

Table 3: Cost

Name	Facility type	Cost	Total known terminal costs
T1	export	–	–
T2	export	–	–
T3	export	–	–
T4	export	–	–

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	mothballed	–	–	–	1970	2011 (mothballed)
T2	export	mothballed	–	–	–	1970	2011 (mothballed)
T3	export	mothballed	–	–	–	1970	2011 (mothballed)
T4	export	mothballed	–	–	–	1970	2011 (mothballed)

Ownership

Table 5: Ownership

Name	Facility type	Status	Owners	Parent companies	Operator
T1	export	mothballed	Sirte Oil Co [100%]	Libya National Oil Corp [100.0%]	–
T2	export	mothballed	Sirte Oil Co [100%]	Libya National Oil Corp [100.0%]	–
T3	export	mothballed	Sirte Oil Co [100%]	Libya National Oil Corp [100.0%]	–
T4	export	mothballed	Sirte Oil Co [100%]	Libya National Oil Corp [100.0%]	–

Background

The Marsa el Brega LNG Terminal consists of four natural gas liquefaction trains, with a total capacity of 3.2 million metric tons per year (mtpa), or 0.46 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd). It was built in 1970 by Esso (ExxonMobil), making it the third LNG export terminal to be built in the world, after the terminal in Arzew in Algeria and the Kenai LNG plant in Alaska. It is owned by the Sirte Oil Company, a subsidiary of the National Oil Corporation, Libya's state-owned oil & gas company. In the early 1980's, sanctions imposed on Libya crippled exports from the terminal and prevented the Libyan government from properly renovating the facility. These sanctions ultimately led to the terminal's output declining to about about 15% of nameplate capacity, and to Esso's exit from the project.

In 2005, following the end of sanctions, NOC reached a US$643 million agreement with Shell, part of which involved Shell working with NOC to renovate and revitalize the Marsa el Brega LNG terminal. In 2010, Shell and NOC started looking for a construction contractor for the renovation project. However, following the beginning of the Libyan civil war in 2011, Shell pulled out of the country in May 2011, and has not returned since.

The Marsa El Brega facility has not exported any LNG since the start of the war in 2011. Additionally, since the terminal was built over 50 years ago, its equipment and infrastructure have reached the end of their design life and its old technology is not designed to current safety standards. Similarly, its marine facilities are no longer suitable for modern large capacity LNG carriers. Because of these technological challenges, the re-use of the equipment that no longer complies with current standards of the international LNG industry "is not recommended."

In 2017, a proposal was made to convert the Marsa El Brega facility to an LNG import/regasification terminal, as the site was deemed "viable as a suitable location for the new import terminal and the area is sufficient and already developed for key marine requirements (with modification)." The proposal examined the possibility of building an onshore LNG terminal at the Marsa El Brega site, as well as an FSRU terminal. Other sites in Libya were also examined as part of the proposal. However, since the proposal was published, there have been no further developments at the site, which as of 2018 had been severely damaged by the Libyan civil war.

As of 2025, the Marsa El Brega facility remains mothballed.

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.