Arbitrator: EMG Due $1.03b From Egypt Over Canceled Gas Contract- HAARETZ

Feb 19, 2018 12:43 AM
Eran Azran 

A lengthy dispute over compensation after Egyptian gas companies cut off the supply of natural gas to Israel six years ago is moving forward in Israel’s favor, thanks to a ruling that the Egyptians had violated their country’s trade treaty with Poland.

The Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration ruled that East Mediterranean Gas, the company that operated the pipeline that had been delivering the gas to Israel, should be awarded $1.033 billion plus interest.

If the award is paid out, that could enable the bondholders of Ampal-American – an Israeli holding company controlled by Yossi Maiman that owned 12.5% of EMG – to collect on the 800 million shekels ($225.8 million at current exchange rates) still owned them after Ampal went bankrupt after EMG’s supply of gas was ended.

The decision by the Cairo-based arbitrator came after the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, or UNCITRAL, ruled that the Egyptian Natural Gas and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation had violated the terms of the Egyptian-Polish trade treaty’s clauses protecting investors.

Leviathan Partners in Talks to Pipe Israeli Gas to Egypt Via Jordan - BLOOMBERG

August 10, 2017, 7:41 AM GMT+3
Yaacov Benmeleh, David Wainer, and Mohammad Tayseer

• Jordanian route would be more costly than going through Sinai
• Alternative path could circumvent Israel-Egypt dispute on fine

Egypt could be on its way to becoming a major market for Israeli gas. Companies developing Israel's biggest natural gas reservoir are said to be in talks to get around a dispute between the two governments by piping the gas through Jordan. Bloomberg's Yaacov Benmeleh reports on 'Bloomberg Markets: Middle East.' (VIDEO HERE)

Companies developing Israel’s largest natural gas reservoir are negotiating an alternative delivery route to key target market Egypt to skirt financial disputes that have held up an export deal, according to people in Egypt and Israel familiar with the matter.

Israel’s Delek Group Ltd. and Houston-based Noble Energy Inc., the major stakeholders in the Leviathan gas field, are in talks to sell about 3 billion cubic meters a year to Egypt’s Dolphinus Holdings Ltd., according to Dolphinus’s co-founder, Alaa Arafa.

Arbitrator rules Egypt must compensate EMG - GLOBES

2 Mar, 2017 15:56
Aviv Levy

The international arbitration panel ruled that Egypt failed to protect the Sinai pipeline from terrorists.

An announcement published yesterday by Ampal-American Israel Corporation concerning the arbitration ruling issued in the past few days by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington DC is likely to give hope to the company's bondholders. The company went bankrupt under controlling shareholder Yosef Maiman, with debts of nearly NIS 1 billion.