Royal Dutch/Shell said yesterday it expects to have plans inplace by this July to export liquefied natural gas to the UnitedStates and southern Europe from Egypt. Egypt has enough gasreserves to commit 10 Tcf to 15 Tcf to export, said Shell.

Under a proposal by Shell International Gas, the company couldexport up to 20% of its Egyptian production to the United States.It also is considering marketing the gas to Spain and Portugal. Nospecific production figures were disclosed.

The U.S. LNG market has drawn a crowd lately, with several NorthAmerican companies announcing plans to build new facilities in thenext few years. In just the past month, Enron Corp., El Paso Corp.,Williams and BP have announced plans to serve North America with LNG(see Daily GPI, Feb. 9). CMS Energy,which operates the largest North American LNG facility in LakeCharles, LA, also said in February it would expand its operations (seeDaily GPI, Feb. 22).

Shell, however, would not build a LNG facility in the UnitedStates, but transport the supplies into the country. It hasproposed building a $1 billion LNG plant and another gas-to-liquidsfacility in Egypt and then would market the gas through itsaffiliates.

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