The Middle East rivals Asia as the world’s largest LNG-producing region and is also the fastest-growing market for LNG imports. As such, the area between the eastern Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulf plays host to busy LNG carrier activity which is steadily growing. The Arabian Peninsula producers and Egypt dispatched 94.11 million tonnes of LNG to world markets in 2016, a 1% increase on 2015, according to the latest International Group of LNG Importers (GIIGNL) annual report. Qatar alone accounted for 79.62 mt, or 83% more than Australia, the world’s second-largest LNG exporter. The Middle East’s six LNG importers – Kuwait, Egypt, Dubai, Jordan, Israel and Abu Dhabi – purchased 17.43 mt of LNG last year, a 78% jump on 2015 volumes. Abu Dhabi started regasification operations at the end of 2016, and cargoes have so far been sourced domestically. The other five countries recorded major increases in their import volumes last year, but none could match Egypt and its 189% leap in inbound LNG, to 7.50 mt. Qatar sets export pace Qatar’s LNG production is concentrated at the massive Ras Laffan port and industrial complex in the north of the country. The 14 trains at the site have been operating at capacity since coming onstream and fill, on average, three LNG carriers per day. Core to Qatar export shipments is the fleet of Qatar Gas Transport Co (Nakilat), a company established in 2004 to deliver cargoes produced by Qatargas and RasGas, the operators of the Ras Laffan trains, to customers worldwide under 25-year charters. Nakilat’s fleet of 63 wholly or part-owned LNG carriers includes 31 Q-flex ships of 216,000m³ and 14 Q-max vessels of 266,000m³. The Q-flex and Q-max ships are the largest LNGCs ever built and were designed to optimise the transport economics of Qatari exports. Nakilat ships handle the bulk of Qatar’s exports, although the emirate’s output is so large and its customer base so diverse that there is plenty of room for other charterers’ vessels at Ras Laffan. Qatar, for example, is a major supplier of the tender cargoes required by the Bahia Blanca and Escobar import terminals in Argentina each winter. This year Trafigura and BP are among those providing the Argentine cargoes and vessels they charter regularly load at Ras Laffan. This year Trafigura is also a leading supplier of tender cargoes to Egypt. Ships chartered to the company and Glencore, another trader, are carrying the bulk of the 2017 cargoes contracted by Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co (EGAS) for discharge to its pair of floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) stationed at Ain Sokhna on the Red Sea. Their vessels also collect cargoes from Ras Laffan as many of the two traders’ Egyptian shipments are sourced from Qatar. Second-tier exports Oman, with an output of 8.12 mt in 2016, is the Middle East’s second-largest LNG exporter with a core fleet of eight LNGCs. Oman Shipping Company (OSC) holds a controlling stake in seven of the vessels and a 40% share in the eighth. Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) part-owns six of the ships. Oman LNG currently loads about 140 cargoes per annum, some 65% of which are shipped under the company’s annual delivery programme. These consignments are transported primarily in the OSC ships to foundation customers Korea Gas Corp (Kogas), Osaka Gas, Gas Natural Fenosa, Itochu Corp and Mitsubishi Corp. Oman LNG’s three-train terminal at Sur has been building up its portfolio of spot cargo customers in recent years, and welcoming a growing fleet of third-party LNGCs as a result. China, Thailand, Taiwan, India and Kuwait are among the new countries receiving Oman shipments. Abu Dhabi is celebrating 40 years of LNG exports from its Das Island terminal this year. The United Arab Emirate loaded 5.86 mt in 2016, marginally up on the previous year. Approximately 75% of the volume goes to the Japanese terminals of long-term customer Jera. Abu Dhabi’s National Gas Shipping Co Ltd operates a fleet of eight 136,000m³ spherical tank LNGCs built in the mid-1990s. In August 2016 the 138,000m³ FSRU Excelerate was positioned in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi’s main port, to help meet the emirate’s growing domestic gas needs. Ruwais cargoes to date have been locally sourced from Das Island. Yemen LNG’s two-train export terminal at Balhaf was shut down in 2015 due to political strife and the threat of terrorist attacks. Until it reopens, the plant’s 7.2 million tonnes per annum (mta) of production capacity is lost to world markets while the four ships long-term chartered by Yemen LNG to lift Balhaf shipments are available for alternative employment. Regionally, some of the lost Yemen volume in 2016 was compensated for by the restart of exports from the Idku LNG plant in Egypt. Egypt had two LNG loading terminals – Damietta and Idku – in operation until a lack of feed gas and rising domestic consumption forced their closure, in 2013 and 2014 respectively. New domestic gas finds have spurred a resurrection of liquefaction operations at the Shell-operated Idku plant, and 0.51 mt was exported in 2016. Loadings have continued at a brisk pace so far in 2017, mostly by vessels chartered to Shell and Engie, for transport to a range of destinations worldwide. Import shift Egypt’s contribution to Middle East LNG imports, strong in 2017, looks set to slip due to the new domestic gas discoveries helping Idku’s rebound. EGAS is negotiating with the traders supplying LNG to the two Ain Sokhna FSRUs in 2017 about reducing these cargoes – the 70 Egyptian import cargoes initially anticipated for 2018 could now be reduced to as few as 30. All the Middle East importers make use of FSRUs to receive inbound LNG. Egypt has Hoegh Gallant and BW Singapore, both of 170,000m³, berthed at Ain Sokhna while Excelerate is at Ruwais. Dubai, Abu Dhabi’s UAE neighbour, has the 150,00m³ Explorer moored in Jebel Ali and at Aqaba in Jordan regasification duties are handled by the 160,000m³ Golar Eskimo. The Middle East FSRU complement is completed by the 170,000m³ Golar Igloo moored at Mina al Ahmadi in Kuwait and the 138,000m³ Excellence which serves Israel’s national grid through an offshore submerged turret loading (STL) facility. Between them, the seven Middle East FSRUs provide an aggregate 1.1M m3 of storage space and the ability to regasify up to 33 mt of LNG each year. The fleet achieved a combined 52% utilisation rate in 2016. Kuwait, Dubai and Jordan welcomed similar import volumes in 2016. Kuwait’s, at 3.49 mt, were 30% ahead of 2015 import levels, while Dubai’s purchases of 3.10 mt marked a 131% year-on-year jump and Jordan’s were up 65%, at 3.06 mt. Israel’s imports, although modest at 0.28 mt, were 133% above 2015 volumes. Kuwait is planning for a steady rise in LNG imports, not least through the construction of a land-based receiving terminal at Al Zour with the capacity to regasify 22 mta of LNG. Set for completion in early 2021, Al Zour will be the first onshore LNG import terminal in the Middle East. Until that time Golar Igloo will be a busy FSRU. In 2016 Kuwait Petroleum Corp signed medium-term sale and purchase contracts with BP, Noble Energy, Shell and Qatargas covering the delivery of an aggregate 3 mta of LNG for four years. Bahrain and Sharjah are set to become the next two Middle East LNG importers, both by early 2019. Bahrain LNG is building a 5.5 mta facility, comprising a 173,400m³ floating storage unit (FSU) to be provided by Teekay and an adjacent fixed regasification platform, in offshore waters near the port of Khalifa Bin Salman. Sharjah National Oil Corp’s (SNOC) October 2016 memorandum of understanding with Uniper, covering the supply of 3-4 mta of LNG to the port of Hamriyah, is set to be formalised following the finalisation in May 2017 of a 10-year gas sales agreement between SNOC and the Sharjah power authority. SNOC plans to use an FSRU as its LNG import facility.