Russia’s Rosneft to supply Egypt with gas

The Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft has signed a deal to supply Egypt with liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The Thursday announcement that Rosneft and Egypt’s state-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company signed a Master LNG Supply and Purchase Agreement came during President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's visit to Russia.

During the visit, Sisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin vowed to strengthen political and economic ties, and to work together to counter terrorism in the Middle East.

In addition to the LNG supply deal, Rosneft and Egypt’s Petroleum Ministry also signed a declaration to create scholarships for Egyptian nationals to study at Russian universities. Ultimately, graduates of these programs will be able to join teams working on joint Russian-Egyptian energy projects.

Rosneft’s cooperation with EGAS marks the Russian oil giant’s entry into the global LNG trade.

The two companies previously signed a Term Sheet in July regarding potential supplies of oil products and liquefied petroleum gas.

At the time, EGAS announced that Rosneft would supply Egypt with 24 shipments of LNG over a two-year period beginning October 2015.

Rosneft has also been an accredited supplier to Egypt’s state-owned General Petroleum Corporation since early 2015. According to the company, as of July it had won bids to supply the General Petroleum Corporation with US$150 million in oil products and liquefied petroleum gas during April, May and June of 2015.

In March, Russia’s natural gas company Gazprom, which is partly state-owned, signed a deal with EGAS to supply 35 cargoes of LNG over five years.