Egypt raises Israeli gas imports 26% as summer power demand surges

Egypt has increased natural gas imports from Israel by 26% since mid-May, raising daily inflows to 1.2 billion cubic feet from 950 million at the start of the month, as rising electricity demand ahead of summer pushed grid load to its highest level in a year, a petroleum ministry source said on Monday.

Load on the national electricity network has climbed to approximately 34,000 megawatts per day, a 9% increase on the same period last year, forcing power stations to burn an additional 250 million cubic feet of gas daily, the source, who requested anonymity, told Al Manassa.

The extra supply has been fed directly into Egypt’s national gas grid and routed to the electricity and industrial sectors. The source said the increase would “help stabilize the domestic gas market and meet the needs of the highest-consuming sectors,” particularly as summer heat intensifies fuel demand at generation plants.

Egypt uses Israeli gas imports to bridge the gap between domestic production; currently running at around 4.2 billion cubic feet per day, and total consumption, even as the petroleum ministry works to reduce that structural dependence through expanded local output.