Officially… Israel Starts Exporting Gas to Egypt

Israel officially started exporting natural gas to Egypt on Wednesday, according to the energy ministers of both countries.

In a joint statement, the Egyptian Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Mulla and his Israeli counterpart Yuval Steinitz said that the development would "serve the economic interests of the two sides”.

The brief statement did not provide any further details about the volume of gas that Israel will export to Egypt.

Earlier, sources revealed that the initial amount that will be imported to Egypt is 1.5 to 3 billion cubic meters per year and will rise next year to 4-5 billion cubic meters, then 7 billion cubic meters by 2022.

The gas shipments will be transported through a pipeline linking the Egyptian port of El-Arish and Israeli port of Ashkelon, which has been rehabilitated at a cost of 55 million pounds.

This step came two years after signing a gas export agreement between Egypt and Israel, worth $ 15 billion.

Under this agreement, signed in 2018 and amended at the end of 2019, Israel will export 85 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas from Israel's Leviathan and Tamar reservoirs to Egypt over the next 15 years.

This is considered an important new step towards realizing Egypt's dream to be a regional energy hub.

The Israeli officials have called the export of gas the most significant deal to emerge since the countries signed a historic peace treaty in 1979.

Yossi Abu, CEO of Israel’s Delek Drilling, one of the partners in Leviathan and Tamar, said the arrangement “marks a new era in the Middle East energy sector”.