A fire broke out at natural gas facilities in the Damietta Port on Wednesday afternoon, the Petroleum Ministry said in a statement , without elaborating on the cause of the incident.
Maritime security firm Ambrey said that a drone struck a United States-owned LNG floating storage facility and a Greek-owned LNG tanker at the port, causing a fire that the security firm said was brought under control.
The Petroleum Ministry affirmed in its statement that there were no injuries or fatalities as a result of the fire, urging media outlets and social media users to refer to official statements issued by the ministry for further information.
The ministry said that the fire had broken out on a regasification vessel and a storage vessel in the port.
Damietta is a key energy logistics site, hosting natural gas facilities that serve Egypt’s export and import needs.
Regasification and storage vessels are currently stationed in its port to facilitate Egypt’s use of imported energy cargo to power homes and industries across the country.
Reuters cited trade sources to report that the vessel that had been struck is Energos Winter, a storage and regasification unit that sails under a Marshall Islands flag that was contracted by Egypt’s government to Damietta Port last year to support Egypt’s gas import processing.
The trade sources and energy sources said the cause of the fire was a drone strike.
Egypt’s logistics and energy facilities had not been targeted so far, though similar sites on both sides of the Persian Gulf have become frequent targets over recent months in the war that the United States and Israel launched against Iran.
While fire has calmed amid ongoing ceasefire negotiations, more attacks flared Wednesday as the US said that its forces in the region were targeted by Iranian fire.
The US said in turn that it had teamed up with Saudi Arabia to attack armed groups in Iraq allied with Iran.