By Irina Mironova for Cedigaz
The absence of a consistent Suez-area facility limits operational flexibility and is one of the structural gaps in the global LNG bunkering map. Egypt’s latest plan for an LNG liquefaction and bunkering facility in Port Said revives an earlier ambition to build a marine-fuel hub at the Suez Canal – this time positioned within a more mature LNG bunkering market but remains subject to the same operational and geopolitical uncertainties that likely prevented earlier proposals from advancing.
LNG bunkering station in El-Raswa: overview
The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) and Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MoPMR) signed an MoU on 23 November 2025 for an LNG liquefaction and bunkering station in El-Raswa / Port Said.
SCA Chairman Osama Rabie framed the project as part of the canal’s long-term strategy to align with ongoing decarbonisation in maritime transport and to enhance the canal’s competitiveness through upgraded logistics and navigational services.
Media reports indicate that the SCA also signed a parallel MoU with Korean institutions, described as outlining project parameters, implementation conditions and economic assessments. However, as of December 2025 no version of this MoU has been made public, and there is no evidence of associated EPC tenders, shipyard contracts, financing commitments or licensing activity. The Port Said initiative therefore remains at the framework-agreement stage, with no visible indication that it has progressed toward execution.
Beyond its symbolic value, the Port Said initiative reflects broader structural forces shaping the evolution of LNG bunkering worldwide.
A niche fuel becoming infrastructure-grade
A decade ago, LNG bunkering was a marginal activity concentrated in Northern Europe. Today it has entered the infrastructure planning strategies of global hubs, supported by IMO environmental standards, rapidly tightening emissions rules in regional jurisdictions, and the emergence of dual-fuel vessel ordering as a mainstream segment. Although LNG is not a zero-carbon option, it remains one of the most mature alternatives to conventional marine fuels, reducing SOx emissions almost entirely, NOx by 85-95%, and CO₂ by 20%, while enabling compliance with IMO and EU regulations.
The market fundamentals have shifted accordingly. The mid-2025 data shows that LNG bunkering is advancing steadily across fleet development and port infrastructure.
- According to SEA-LNG mid-year 2025 data, there are now 1,369 LNG dual-fuel vessels in operation and on order globally, with 87 new orders placed in the first six months of 2025 (a sharp increase from 53 in the same period of 2024). These orders represent 14.2 million GT, reflecting a shift toward very large container vessels. If LNG carriers are included, the number of LNG-fuelled ships rises to more than 2,400, exceeding 10% of global gross tonnage.
- As of mid-2025, 62 LNG bunkering vessels are in operation, with 30 more on order, including 13 LNGBVs ordered in the first half of the year alone. SEA-LNG notes an emerging trend toward larger bunkering vessels (~17,000 m³) and a rise in speculative orders not tied to specific suppliers.
- Growth in bunkering demand is reflected in port-level activity. The strong expansion seen in 2024 has carried into this year: Rotterdam’s LNG bunker sales rose 7% in Q1-2025, Singapore recorded an 18% increase over January–May, and Shanghai saw over 60% growth in the same period.
Why Suez matters: a chokepoint becomes a fuel hub
Estimates from international organisations suggest that around 12–15% of global trade transits the Suez Canal annually, including a growing number of LNG-fuelled vessels. For operators navigating between Asia and Europe, LNG bunkering is currently concentrated at the two ends of the route – Singapore in the east and Northwest Europe in the west. The absence of a reliable mid-route option obliges deep-sea carriers to plan fuel loads conservatively or make operational adjustments, since a single LNG bunkering stop is often insufficient for long-haul voyages. A future Suez-area facility would therefore provide meaningful flexibility and reduce constraints on routing and fuel management.
The absence of large-scale alternative-fuel bunkering on the Suez corridor has been one of the structural blind spots in the global LNG bunkering map. While Egypt has established bunkering services for conventional marine fuels, it currently offers no operational LNG bunkering capability, and the existing LNG infrastructure at Idku and Damietta is not configured for marine fuel supply.
The planned Port Said facility could therefore fill a critical gap:
- Geographically, it is positioned at the northern gateway of the Suez Canal, close to dense east–west shipping flows.
- Logistically, it enables flexibility for vessels optimising transit schedules and fuel management, especially for container carriers and car carriers that anchor near Port Said.
- Strategically, it could anchor Egypt’s ambition to develop a broader green-fuel ecosystem, including potential synergies with future hydrogen-based fuels.
Success not guaranteed
This is not Egypt’s first attempt to establish LNG bunkering capability at the Suez Canal. A previous commercial proposal by Kanfer Shipping, announced in 2023 and targeting mid-2025 start-up, never reached FID and was ultimately not implemented. No vessel construction or regulatory milestones followed the announcement, reflecting the underlying challenges. While no formal explanation was provided, the broader operating environment at the time suggests a combination of market and regional factors may have played a role.
Domestic gas balances tightened significantly in 2023–2024 as declining output from key offshore fields coincided with rising power-sector demand during peak summer months. This forced Egypt to redirect available gas toward electricity generation, limiting feedgas to the Idku and Damietta liquefaction plants. Both terminals experienced repeated curtailments and periods of shutdown, reflecting the priority given to stabilising the domestic grid. These disruptions underscored the difficulty of ensuring continuous LNG availability for export, let alone for emerging small-scale or bunkering applications, and highlighted the operational risks facing any new LNG-dependent service on the Suez corridor.
Regional security dynamics further complicate the outlook. Since late 2023, heightened security risks in the Red Sea have prompted major carriers to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope. By early 2024, Suez Canal traffic had declined by around 50% year-on-year, with vessel transits down by as much as 75% in some months versus 2023. This sharp contraction in throughput casts uncertainty over near-term demand for LNG bunkering and underscores the risk–return considerations that both public authorities and private operators must manage.
The timing of the latest announcement also coincides with a period of relative calm along key Red Sea shipping lanes. Temporary reductions in security incidents have helped ease operational pressures on carriers and provided a more conducive backdrop for discussing long-term infrastructure plans. While such pauses have historically proven fragile, they may partly explain the renewed public communication around the Port Said initiative.
Global Context: what the Suez project signals
- LNG bunkering is shifting to strategic corridors
Projects in Japan, the Baltic, and Northern Europe have shown that LNG bunkering becomes viable once vessels, operators, and regulatory frameworks reach critical mass. In Japan, small-scale LNG development and the deployment of LNG-fuelled ferries helped catalyse demand, while the Baltic experienced coordinated development due to the sulphur emissions control area (SECA) regime. - Regional competition is emerging
Several Mediterranean countries – including Spain, Italy, Greece, and Türkiye – are advancing LNG bunkering-related initiatives through national strategies and port-level development projects. - LNG remains part of a multi-fuel future
While shipping decarbonisation will ultimately require scalable zero-carbon fuels, LNG is likely to remain a key transitional fuel in the 2020s and early 2030s. The ability to blend renewable methane in existing LNG systems also offers a pathway for further emissions reduction.