On Wednesday, Egypt, Israel, and the European Union signed a trilateral natural gas agreement in Cairo, as Europe scrambles to cobble together an energy strategy to replace the Russian supplies it has relied on for decades.
The deal, which has been in the works since March, will enable Israel to streamline and increase the export of its natural gas through already existing pipelines to Egyptian ports, where it can be pressurized and liquefied, then transported to Europe.
“This will contribute to our energy security. And we are building infrastructure fit for renewables — the energy of the future,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, tweeted Wednesday from Cairo with a photo of the signing.”
In recent weeks, Israel has promised to accelerate its gas output as demand grew and prices soared. It is looking, in collaboration with other Middle Eastern countries, to sell to Europe, previously the largest client of Russian energy.
“With the beginning of this war and the attempt of Russia to blackmail us through energy, by deliberately cutting off the energy supplies, we decided to cut off and to get rid of the dependency on Russian fossil fuels, and to move away from Russia and persify to trustworthy suppliers,” von der Leyen said at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Jerusalem on Tuesday night, at the end of a two-day visit to Israel and the West Bank. “It is an outstanding step bringing our energy cooperation to the next level.”
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi also met with Bennett on Tuesday to discuss energy cooperation. Claudio Descalzi, the head of the Italian oil giant Eni, said last month that Italy aims to be fully independent of Russian gas by the winter of 2024-2025. On Wednesday, Eni said the state-owned Russian company Gazprom had cut its gas supply to Italy by 15 percent. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Italy has signed deals with several energy-exporting African countries, including Egypt.
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