Egypt overtakes Kuwait as MENA’s biggest LNG importer: What to know
Last year, the North African country shifted from being a net exporter to a net importer of LNG, due to soaring demand and production declines.
Egypt has overtaken Kuwait as the Middle East and North Africa's biggest importer of liquefied natural gas, as shipments to the Arab world's most populous country surged over the last two years.
Egypt has imported 6.46 million tons of LNG so far this year, surpassing Kuwait’s 6.44 million tons, according to shipping data compiled by Bloomberg. The surge marks a dramatic reversal: Egypt imported just 2.78 million tons in 2024 after taking in barely 20,000 to 25,000 tons in 2023, data from the Middle East Economic Survey show.
Why it matters: Egypt went from being an LNG exporter to an LNG importer at the end of 2024. The Zohr field — the largest gas discovery in the Mediterranean — came online in December 2017, helping Egypt become a net LNG exporter in the late 2010s.
However, output at Zohr has since fallen sharply. It was producing roughly 3.2 billion cubic feet of gas per day by the end of 2019, but by 2024 output had declined to around 1.9 billion cubic feet per day, mainly due to natural reservoir depletion and water influxes.
