Egypt Likely to Pay Higher Price for Algerian LNG

Egypt will most likely pay a high price for the Algerian LNG it plans to import to meet domestic demand, reports Wall Street Journal quoting industry officials.

Media reports in June said Algeria has agreed to deliver to Egypt five LNG cargoes of 145,000 cubic metres each before the end of the year.

"We had initially hoped that Algeria could be willing to give us a good discount or flexible credit terms, but as we stand we are likely to pay a high price for the deal," Wall Street Journal quotes a senior Egyptian oil official as saying.

According to the official Algeria wants Egypt to pay almost $13 per million British thermal units, or about $250 million for the shipments.

This is even higher than the $11 per MMBtu it gets from many of its customers, the official said.

Another person familiar with the talks said Algeria has made it clear it wants a price of more than $12 a MMBtu for the LNG cargoes, adds Wall Street Journal.