Egypt postpones court case on Israeli 'theft' of natural gas

Egypt’s Administrative Court has postponed the hearing of a case in which Israel is accused of stealing Egyptian natural gas. The case will now be heard on December 24 after the College of Commissioners has prepared a detailed report on the lawsuit, reported Al-Shorouk newspaper on Tuesday.

The lawsuit was filed by Engineer Mamdouh Hamza, Major General Salah Eddin Salama and lawyer Adel Sharaf in an appeal against the Minister of Petroleum’s decision issued on January 1, 2012. The plaintiffs demanded an end to what they describe as Israel’s “theft” of gas from the Egyptian Leviathan and Shamshom fields, as well as an end to Cyprus’s “theft” of gas from the Aphrodite field.

The appeal stated that the gas reserves in the Leviathan field, which was discovered by Israel, and the Aphrodite field, discovered by Cyprus in 2011, are worth $200 billion. It called on the Ministry of Petroleum to take prompt steps to establish the areas of Israeli economic waters for exploration by international companies and to adopt the same fait accompli policies as Israel in such matters, especially because Egypt has a right to regional economic waters according to international laws, conventions and treaties.