Cairo moved this week to lock-in its gas needs for 2017 by signing a deal to take up to 45 LNG cargoes from Russian state oil giant Rosneft, France’s Engie and Oman state refiner Orpic’s commercial arm OTI, in a deal worth $1bn according to Oil Minister Tarek El Molla. This adds to the 12-month, 60-cargo deal signed in November last year with trading firms Glencore, Trafigura, BB, Gunvor and Vitol (MEES, 2 December 2016).
Mr Molla said last June that Egypt was looking to import between 110 and 120 LNG cargoes in 2017. The two most recent deals combined, along with an option to import an additional 12 cargoes put the total number of cargoes signed up since November at 117. (CONTINUED - 499 WORDS)
