Steven Scheer and Marwa Rashad
JERUSALEM/LONDON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Israel's Leviathan natural gas field has signed the largest export agreement in the country's history, worth up to $35 billion to supply gas to Egypt, NewMed , one of the partners in the field, said on Thursday.
The deal should ease an energy crisis in Egypt, which has spent billions of dollars on importing liquefied natural gas since its own supplies fell short of demand.
Egypt's production began declining in 2022, forcing it to abandon its ambitions to become a regional supply hub. It has increasingly turned to Israel to make up the shortfall.
Exports from Leviathan were halted during a 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June for security reasons, but have since resumed.
Under the deal announced on Thursday, Leviathan, off Israel's Mediterranean coast, with reserves of some 600 billion cubic metres, will sell about 130 bcm of gas to Egypt through 2040, or until all of the contract quantities are fulfilled.
The gas is pumped via pipelines, which makes it cheaper than LNG, the cost of which is inflated by the super-cooling required to make it a liquid that can be transported by ship and regasifying it when it reaches its destination.
"It's much, much, much, much better, like dramatically better, than any LNG alternative, and it will save billions of dollars to the Egyptian economy," NewMed CEO Yossi Abu told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
JERUSALEM/LONDON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Israel's Leviathan natural gas field has signed the largest export agreement in the country's history, worth up to $35 billion to supply gas to Egypt, NewMed , one of the partners in the field, said on Thursday.
The deal should ease an energy crisis in Egypt, which has spent billions of dollars on importing liquefied natural gas since its own supplies fell short of demand.
Egypt's production began declining in 2022, forcing it to abandon its ambitions to become a regional supply hub. It has increasingly turned to Israel to make up the shortfall.
Exports from Leviathan were halted during a 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June for security reasons, but have since resumed.
Under the deal announced on Thursday, Leviathan, off Israel's Mediterranean coast, with reserves of some 600 billion cubic metres, will sell about 130 bcm of gas to Egypt through 2040, or until all of the contract quantities are fulfilled.
The gas is pumped via pipelines, which makes it cheaper than LNG, the cost of which is inflated by the super-cooling required to make it a liquid that can be transported by ship and regasifying it when it reaches its destination.
"It's much, much, much, much better, like dramatically better, than any LNG alternative, and it will save billions of dollars to the Egyptian economy," NewMed CEO Yossi Abu told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
