Israel starts gas exports through Egypt

Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek el-Molla in Kuwait City on 10 December 2017 [YASSER AL-ZAYYAT/AFP/Getty Images]

Israel began pumping natural gas to Egypt for the first time today under a $15 billion, 15-year deal to liquefy and re-export the gas to Europe, Reuters reported.

Tel Aviv and Cairo’s energy ministries issued a rare joint statement announcing the implementation of the estimated $19.5 billion deal to pump gas from two offshore gas fields.

The companies operating the two fields – Delek Drilling and Noble Energy – reached a deal in 2018 with Egypt’s Dolphinus Holdings to start exporting gas through its well-developed LNG plants.

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Delek Drilling’s CEO Yossi Abu described the move as a “new era in the Middle East energy sector.”

Israel will initially export 200 million cubic feet of gas per day to Egypt by the help of this agreement, Egyptian Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla told El Watan in an interview last year.

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