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Egypt to pay over $2 billion to Israel in damages for gas deal

March 4, 2017 at 10:55 am

Israeli gas company Ampal has won a new court ruling that says it should be compensated around $176 million from Egyot in damages for the closure of the pipeline which transferred Egyptian gas to Israel, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported early this week.

This ruling, which was issued by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, came after several rulings stated that Egypt must pay about $2 billion to Israel for damage to the same pipeline.

Haaretz said that the arbitrator made the ruling on 21 February, stating that Egypt acted “unlawfully” when it closed the pipeline. It also said that Ampal’s lawyers are not optimistic Egypt would pay up.

The Israeli newspaper reported a source close to the arbitration saying: “The Egyptian government has failed to pay damages imposed by international courts.”

According to sources, “avoiding payments risks deterring potential foreign investors and credit insurance companies are unlikely to provide coverage for future deals involving the Egyptian government.”

The Haaretz report said that in 2015, EMG won $325 million in damages from the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation in arbitration conducted by the International Chamber of Commerce’s court of arbitration in Geneva.
It also said that Israel Electric Corporation, which was the ultimate recipient of the gas, won a $1.76 billion judgment in the same year, too.
The newspaper reported Niv Sever, a lawyer for EMG, as saying that he was confident Ampal’s creditors would see their money soon, noting that the “uniqueness of the arbitration panel is that its decisions cannot be appealed.”
He added: “Since you cannot appeal the verdict, the decision can be enforced and the property of Egyptians abroad, who are not entitled to any government protection, can be confiscated.”

The lawyer also said that failure to respect the panel’s ruling by Cairo could also lower the credit rating of Egypt.