PA denies Israeli involvement in Egypt gas deal

The Palestinian Authority yesterday denied the existence of an Egyptian-Palestinian-Israeli agreement to extract gas from a field located off the coast of the besieged Gaza Strip.

The chairman of the Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority (PENRA), Zafer Milhem, told Quds Press that there is “no signed agreement in this regard.” He stressed that Israel has “nothing” to do with the gas project. “The Egyptian deal is limited only to developing the gas field.”

Milhem noted that the development work would be followed by “another agreement, yet to be finalised.” He reiterated that the PA was “still studying the project’s implementation.”

According to Egyptian Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla, an agreement to develop the offshore natural gas field off the Gaza coast is “in its final stages.”

The field is located 36 kilometres west of Gaza and was developed in 2000 by British Gas. The company withdrew from the project in favour of Royal Dutch Shell, which withdrew in 2018.

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