LNG tanker Hogg Galant has left Egypt, where it has been used as a floating port for importation since 2015, to sail to the Sabine Pass production facility in the United States, according to the data of Revitiv Aikon.
Norway's HGG-LNG said earlier this week it had agreed to early termination of its contract with Egypt to use Hogg Galant as a floating storage and re-gasification unit and would lease the ship to a third party that would use it as a regular LNG carrier.
Egyptian Oil Minister Tariq al-Mulla told Reuters on Tuesday that the ship would leave before the end of this week, a day after the company announced that Egypt would abandon one of its two liquefied natural gas terminals.
Mullah said the other ship would remain "part of the ministry's strategy and plan to secure energy supplies to Egypt."
Egypt hired Hugg Galant from Hogg LNG and BSW Singapore from BMW Group in 2015.
The agreements were supposed to remain in place until 2020.
Hogg said on Monday that the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), which has decided to terminate the lease earlier, agreed to pay the difference between its contract for the floating port of storage and diversion and a new contract with a third party.
Egypt aims to be a regional center for liquefied natural gas trade after a series of major discoveries in recent years, including the giant gas backfield, which has an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Mulla announced last month that Egypt would stop importing natural gas after receiving its last liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments in the week before the announcement.
Egypt began importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2015 after its declining production of gas was not enough to keep up with growing domestic demand. However, several discoveries, most notably a field that appeared in Egypt's territorial waters in the Mediterranean, enabled Egypt to announce weeks ago that it had stopped importing gas shipments Natural.
