Egypt's Power Plants Switch to Fuel Oil Amid Damietta Port Attack

A recent drone attack on vessels at the Damietta port in Egypt has disrupted natural gas supplies to power plants, prompting operators to switch to fuel oil. The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) reported that conventional power plants consume around 3.65 billion cubic feet of gas per day, down from 3.7 billion cubic feet last August.

The attack affected two vessels: the US-owned Energos Winter, a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage and regasification unit, and GasLog Salem, an LNG carrier. According to EGAS, power plants rely mainly on domestic gas, with 65% of their consumption coming from domestic production and about 35% from imports.

To offset the lost gas supply, plants nearly tripled their fuel oil consumption to around 30,000 tons per day compared to pre-attack levels. The petroleum ministry is seeking to supply more gas to the plants over the coming days by regasifying supplies in Jordan.