In 1995, the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) signed a concession agreement with BG International Limited (BG) and Edison International (Edison) to explore for hydrocarbons in the West Delta Deep Marine (WDDM) region in the North Eastern Mediterranean. Very successful drilling activity uncovered a world-class gas resource that carried substantially larger reserves than what the local market could absorb. As a result, in 2001, the concession agreement was amended to allow the partners to export gas as LNG.
In January 2002, a heads of agreement was signed with Gaz de France (GdF) for the sale of 3.6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG for 20 years. EGPC, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), BG Asia Pacific Holdings Pte Limited (an affiliate of BG International), Edison and GdF became the Sponsors of this new project and commissioned Bechtel to construct a single-train liquefaction plant matching the volumes to be sold to GdF.
Construction of the plant began in 2002 using the ConocoPhillips Optimized Cascade Process. Later in the year, to capitalize on discoveries of more gas reserves, the WDDM owners negotiated the sale of the output of a second train, also with a capacity of 3.6 mtpa, to BG Gas Marketing (BGGM). Construction of Train 2 started 6 months behind Train 1.
In 2003, Edison sold its share in Egyptian LNG and the upstream WDDM concession to a subsidiary of the Malaysian National Oil Company, Petronas (PICL Egypt), who brought extensive LNG experience to the project. Today, the Egyptian LNG project is well underway with deliveries from Train 1 expected in the second quarter of 2005 and Train 2 later in the same year. With two trains commissioned in one year, Egyptian LNG will contribute to Egypt's leap into the 7th place in the elite club of LNG exporting countries before the end of 2005.
The Egyptian LNG plant is located on approximately 165 hectares of land some 3 kilometres away from the town of Idku and 40 kilometers east of Alexandria on the Egyptian Mediterranean coast