Drone strikes reportedly set fire to two liquefied-natural-gas vessels at Egypt’s Damietta Port on Wednesday, raising the possibility that the 2026 Iran war has reached Egyptian territory for the first time.
British maritime-security firm Ambrey told the Associated Press that drones ignited fires aboard a U.S.-owned floating storage and regasification unit and a Greek-owned LNG tanker, identified in maritime reporting as the Energos Winter and GasLog Salem. Reuters reported at least one drone struck the U.S.-owned, Marshall Islands-flagged vessel. Identifying the weapon as a drone establishes the mechanism, not who launched it; no launch origin or responsible actor has been identified.
Egypt’s Petroleum Ministry confirmed emergency crews contained a fire involving a regasification vessel and a storage vessel but did not confirm a drone strike, cause, or responsible party. No armed group or government has claimed the incident.
The Energos Winter is one of four floating units supplying roughly 2.7 billion cubic feet of daily regasification capacity to Egypt’s grid. Egypt had been one of the few regional states spared direct military action in 2026. If confirmed hostile, Damietta would mark a significant westward expansion of the conflict; for now, perpetrator and motive remain unknown.
