Egyptian firm to buy $15b in Israeli natural gas

World Monday 19/February/2018 19:09 PM
By: Times News Service
Egyptian firm to buy $15b in Israeli natural gas

Tel Aviv: An Egyptian company will buy $15 billion of Israeli natural gas in two 10-year agreements announced on Monday.
The partners in Israel's Tamar and Leviathan offshore gas fields said they have signed with private Egyptian firm Dolphinus Holdings to supply a total of around 64 billion cubic metres of gas over a decade - with half coming from each field and the proceeds split equally between them.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the agreements would "strengthen our economy (and) strengthen regional ties."
Israel's Delek Group and Texas-based Noble Energy have led both gas projects.
"Egypt is becoming a real gas hub," Yossi Abu, CEO of Delek subsidiary Delek Drilling, told Reuters.
"This deal is the first deal of potentially more to come."
The partners have also been trying to finalise a long-term export deal with a Royal Dutch Shell plant in Egypt.
An Egyptian government official, who declined to be identified, said the deal did not mean Egypt itself would import any gas from abroad. "International private companies will import gas from abroad in the framework of their own needs, and will liquefy and export them again," the official said, without elaborating.