Israel approves $35 bil Egypt gas export deal - S&P Global

December 18, 2025
Matt Hoisch

The Israeli government has approved the previously-announced $35 billion agreement to expand gas exports from the country's Leviathan offshore gas field to Egypt, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Dec. 17, in what he described as "the largest gas deal in Israel's history."

"This deal greatly strengthens Israel's status as a regional energy power and contributes to stability in our region," he said while addressing the country. "It encourages other companies to invest in gas exploration in Israel's economic waters."

The agreement will see some 130 Bcm of gas flow to existing Leviathan offtaker Blue Ocean Energy to 2040 "or until all contract quantities are fulfilled," according to statements from NewMed Energy, one of the partners in the Leviathan field.

It will replace an existing export agreement due to end in the early 2030s.

Israel energy minister backs more natural gas exports - CYPRUS MAIL

August 2, 2023

Israel’s energy minister said on Wednesday that more of the country’s natural gas reserves should be earmarked for export, amid renewed interest in offshore exploration and an ongoing debate on whether the gas should be kept for domestic use.

Huge gas deposits were discovered in the past 15 years off Israel’s Mediterranean coast, but the government, in order to ensure the local market has enough in the future, set limits on how much can be sold abroad.

The issue has been hotly debated for years and was reignited last month when Israel’s budget director warned that the country risked exporting too much, endangering energy security.

In 2022, energy companies in Israel produced 21.29 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas, with just 9.21 bcm of it exported. The exports went to Egypt and Jordan.

Now Israel is at an energy crossroads.

Energean exports first hydrocarbon liquids from Israeli gas fields - THE JERUSALEM POST

FEBRUARY 14, 2023 16:55

Zachy Hennessey

For the first time in the history of Israeli oil and gas production, hydrocarbon liquids will be exported to global markets, Energean confirmed on Tuesday. The first cargo has been transferred from the company's Karish field platform and sold as part of a multi-cargo marketing agreement with Vitol.

“We are happy and proud that Energean has facilitated Israel joining the club of international oil exporters," said Mathios Rigas, Energean's CEO "This is another milestone for us, enhancing Energean’s growth as a significant player in the local and regional markets.”

According to Energean, the hydrocarbon liquids are to be offloaded in a controlled manner via the Energean Power FPSO vessel and subsequently sold into various global markets, creating a significantly differentiated income stream that is fundamentally separate to the company's gas-derived revenues.

EXCLUSIVE Israel considering new pipeline to boost gas exports to Egypt - REUTERS

October 21, 2021 4:14 PM EEST

By Ron Bousso and Ari Rabinovitch

• Israel, Egypt holding talks on new onshore pipeline -ministry
• New pipeline expected to cost $200 mln -industry sources
• Pipeline will boost exports by 3 to 5 bcm/year -industry sources

LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Israel is considering the construction of a new onshore pipeline to Egypt in order to quickly boost natural gas exports to its neighbour in the wake of the recent tightening of global supplies, the Israeli energy ministry said.

The pipeline, which will connect the Israeli and Egyptian natural gas grids through the north of the Sinai peninsula, is estimated to cost around $200 million and could be operational within 24 months, industry sources who are close to the discussions told Reuters.

Leviathan gas begins flowing to Jordan - GLOBES

Yuval Steinitz, Israel's energy minister

2 Jan, 2020 9:02

Jordan's National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) has said that the experimental supply of natural gas by US-based Noble Energy Inc. started as of yesterday. "The experimental pumping, which will last three months, is aimed at testing the infrastructure prior to the actual commercial supply," NEPCO added.

NEPCO continued, "The gas supply is in line with an agreement signed between the two companies in 2016. Under the agreement, Noble Energy will provide gas worth $15 billion dollars to the Kingdom for a period of 15 years, or 300 million cubic feet on a daily basis."

No mention in NEPCO's statement was made of either Israel or Leviathan because the agreement to buy Israeli gas is unpopular with many in Jordan. Last year Jordan's parliament scrap the deal.

Electrical equipment of Israel-Jordan gas line torched - THE JERUSALEM POST

DECEMBER 29, 2019 10:31
Tzvi Joffre

Two electrical transformers servicing a gas transfer station intended to transport gas from the Leviathan natural gas field in Israel into Jordan were torched by unidentified people in Irbid in northern Jordan on Saturday.

According to Sky News Arabia, this is not the first attack against the gas transfer station in Irbid. Gas flow through the station is expected to start in the next few days.

Jordanian citizens and politicians have expressed protest to the planned transfer of gas between the two nations.

On Sunday, Jordan's parliament filed an urgent memo, requesting that a law be drafted to ban the import of gas from Israel, according to Asharq Al-Awsat.

Dozens of activists held a protest in front of the parliament, calling for a cancellation of the gas trade deal.

Egypt to begin gas imports from Israel by mid-January 2020 - REUTERS

DECEMBER 22, 2019 / 12:46 PM

CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Egypt will begin importing natural gas from Israel by mid-January 2020, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israel Radio on Sunday.

“(The exports) will begin in the middle of next month and perhaps even earlier,” he said.

Israeli gas exports to Egypt will gradually reach 7 billion cubic meters, a senior industry source, who earlier in the day disclosed a mid-January starting date, said on condition of anonymity.

Steinitz said Egyptian petroleum minister Tarek El Molla had spoken to him two days ago and congratulated him on signing export permits for the gas.

Egyptian company Dolphinus Holdings reached a landmark deal last year with the Israeli companies operating the Israeli fields Leviathan and Tamar.

Exxonmobil Israel talk Leviathan LNG export options - OIL & GAS EURASIA

13.11.2019

Exxonmobil is offering to build Israel a floating LNG gas-ship to export from the Leviathan gasfield and thus bypass Egypt’s planned LNG export facility.

An Exxonmobil representative told various financial media that the company is still considering its options. Other sources cautioned that it is entirely likely no agreement will be reached.

Despite considerable gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean region over the past decade, viable export routes have been hard to find. This has put off global energy firms. The Leviathan partners have signed deals to meet surging demand in Egypt, Jordan and Israel, but haven’t yet found a way to export to Europe or East Asia.

Israel to increase natural gas exports to Egypt, companies say - REUTERS

OCTOBER 2, 2019 / 9:47 AM

Reporting by Tova Cohen and Ari Rabinovitch

(Reuters) - Israel will significantly increase the amount of natural gas it plans to export to Egypt under a landmark deal, energy companies in Israel said on Wednesday.

Partners in Israel’s Leviathan and Tamar offshore gas fields signed a deal last year to sell $15 billion worth of gas to a customer in Egypt in what Israeli officials called it the most significant deal to emerge since the neighbors made peace in 1979.

Under the amended agreement, the companies said the amount to be sold from the Leviathan field will nearly double to 60 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas over 15 years. Exports from the nearby Tamar field will be reduced to 25.3 bcm from 32 bcm over the same period.

One source in the Israeli energy industry estimated the value of gas to be exported was now $19.5 billion — $14 billion coming from Leviathan and $5.5 billion from Tamar.

Texas-based Noble Energy, Israel’s Delek Drilling and Ratio Oil own Leviathan. Noble, Delek Drilling, Isramco and Tamar Petroleum are leading partners in the Tamar field.

If Egypt Won’t Buy Israel’s Gas, Maybe Israeli Consumers Will - HAARETZ

Sep 19, 2019 5:03 AM
Ora Coren

If Israel is having trouble selling its natural gas overseas, maybe it will have better luck selling it to Israeli consumers.

That’s the reasoning behind a pilot project to hook up 15 new residential neighborhoods to the national gas pipeline network. Instead of having gas cylinders delivered by truck, homes would be connected by pipeline and gas could then be used for more things than cooking and heating.

The Energy Ministry, which is behind the project, faces a lot of skepticism from the local industry about the economic viability to households using more gas. The pilot, which will include subsidiaries to the tune of 80 million shekels ($22.7 million), aims to prove them wrong.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty about it, so the government is acting wisely and before it jumps into the deep waters of regulations it is examining for itself and for the gas distribution companies whether they can provide the service,” said one source involved in the project.

Sinai Security Fears Snare Israel's Gas Exports to Egypt - HAARETZ

Tamar Petroleum's IPO back in July 2017 

Sep 16, 2019 3:13 AM

Eran Azran

• Egypt says Israeli gas exports on track but cites low figures
• Israel to begin gas exports to Egypt within months, energy minister says
• Egypt praised for economic reforms, but millions of Egyptians barely survive

Investor anxieties over the Tamar natural gas field have deepened in recent days amid security concerns about the pipeline designated to deliver Israeli gas to Egypt.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that delays in completing a key agreement to facilitate the exports were due to the tense security situation in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

“There’s some infrastructure that needs to be repaired in that area. That’s part of the holdup for shipping the gas,” the paper quoted U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette as saying. “No one wants to send individuals into harm’s way.”

Challenges to Israel’s gas exports - CYPRUS MAIL

September 15, 2019
Charles Ellinas

Since discovery of natural gas in its exclusive economic zone Israel has been dreaming of exports, riches and political influence. Massive political capital has been expended in this direction, but so far without results, apart from small exports to Jordan, and possibly Egypt, but not to global markets.

The giant gas-field Leviathan is expected to come on-stream by end-2019, with as much as 9-10 billion cubic metres/yr (bcm/yr) surplus gas available for export. Noble Energy and its partners have been considering all options to secure international buyers for this, but unsuccessfully.

The main challenge is commercial. Gas prices are low globally and even though they may rise after 2025, they are still expected to be at levels that challenge exports of gas from the East Med. For example, gas prices in Europe are currently just over $3/mmbtu (per about 1000 cubic feet) and are forecast to average $6-$6.50/mmbtu between 2020-2030. Political will is not sufficient to overcome price limitations, despite all the hype, either in Israel or in Cyprus.

East Med gas is mostly in deep water and deep reservoirs. This makes it expensive to develop. The lack of regional infrastructure also impacts the cost of exporting such gas.

Israeli gas will arrive in Egypt before the end of the year -El Molla - ENTERPRISE

Wednesday, 11 September 2019

Egypt will begin receiving natural gas from Israel by the end of 2019, Oil Minister Tarek El Molla said in an interview at the World Energy Congress yesterday, according to Bloomberg. Israel will initially ship some 200 mn scf of gas per day, an amount that will increase to 500 mn scf/d at some point in 2020, he said. The import of Israeli gas comes as part of the landmark USD 15 bn agreement between Alaa Arafa-led Dolphinus Holdings, Delek Drilling, and Noble Energy, which was signed last year.

Multilateralism to blame for delays? El Molla said that the multilateral nature of the gas export arrangement was the main reason for the process taking longer than planned, but insisted that export plans remain on track, according to Reuters. Trial shipments were originally supposed to come in March, with commercial sales beginning by the end of June. Another potential spanner in the works surfaced in May when Thailand’s PPT Energy — a stakeholder in the Egypt-Israel EMG gas pipeline — filed a USD 1 bn lawsuit against Egypt for failing to meet gas deliveries after 2011.

Gas sector a catalyst for further cooperation between Lebanon and Egypt - EXECUTIVE MAGAZINE

Nada Boustani, Lebanon's Energy Minister

August 7, 2019

Mona Sukkarieh

The first six months of 2019 saw an unusual series of meetings between Lebanese and Egyptian officials, with energy cooperation at the core of these discussions. If memory serves well, the frequency is unprecedented.

The option of resuming gas imports from Egypt was discussed extensively, especially during the first meetings of 2019. Lebanon previously imported natural gas from Egypt in 2010 via the Arab Gas Pipeline (AGP) to generate electricity. But supplies were interrupted after a few months with various reasons touted (such as Egypt’s inability to pursue exports because production was barely enough to meet local demand, instability in Egypt, and attacks against the pipeline). With the formation of a new government on January 31, Lebanese officials explored the possibility of quickly resuming imports as they scrambled to find solutions to the problems plaguing the electricity sector. The dire state of Lebanon’s power sector and the burden it places on the economy propelled it to the forefront of the government’s reform agenda. Government officials examined the option of importing gas by pipeline from Egypt to generate electricity—in addition to the possibility of buying electricity from Jordan in exchange for water—as among the possible solutions that they thought could be implemented quickly.

Israeli Energy Exports Won’t Make Europe More Pro-Israel - FOREIGN POLICY

AUGUST 28, 2019, 6:57 AMCHARLES ELLINAS

The natural gas discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean is so expensive to bring to market that it might never reach European consumers, let alone change the policies of EU governments.

Ever since the discovery of the Leviathan gas field off the coast of Haifa, Israel has been dreaming of riches and political influence. A recent Foreign Policy article has taken this to the realms of the unimaginable—arguing that future European dependence on Israeli gas exports could both change the political views of European countries toward Israel and make the EU pro-Israel.

But the article overlooks a more basic question: Can Israeli gas ever make it to Europe or to global markets at a competitive price? With Leviathan about to come onstream, Israel, Noble Energy (as the operator), and its partners are looking for gas sales beyond this first phase of development. As much as 9-10 billion cubic meters per year of gas could be available for export. This is about the same amount as the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline from Azerbaijan to Italy that will be delivering 10 billion cubic meters per year to Europe by 2020.

Leviathan Partners Considering FLNG for Israel’s Offshore Field - NATURAL GAS INTEL

August 2, 2019
Tim Daiss

Partners in the Noble Energy Inc.-operated Leviathan project offshore Israel are considering a floating liquified natural gas (FLNG) vessel to enable exports from the massive natural gas field.

Delek Group and Houston-based Noble are negotiating with Golar LNG Ltd. and Exmar NV for a binding long-term charter agreement to finance, build, operate and maintain the facility in Israel’s exclusive economic zone.

Noble two weeks ago said it was only months away from delivering commercial gas from the field, with sales scheduled to start by the end of the year. The company expects to sell an average of 800 MMcf/d from Leviathan in 2020.

An FLNG facility would allow liquefaction capacity of 2.4-5 million metric tons/year. Processed gas could be piped from the Leviathan production platform to the FLNG facility offshore Israel, where it would be liquefied and transferred to LNG vessels.

Israel to begin gas exports to Egypt within four months: Minister - AL ARABIYA / REUTERS

Wednesday, 24 July 2019, KSA 14:11 - GMT 11:11

Israel will begin natural gas exports to Egypt within four months, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told Reuters on Wednesday.

He also said that a deal to buy stakes in the East Mediterranean Gas Company’s pipeline between the two countries will be completed “within weeks” and that more connections could be built between them.

Steinitz also said that more economic pressure should be applied on Iran, and that it “must be stopped.”

Leviathan natural gas platform starts voyage to Israel - REUTERS

JULY 14, 2019 / 10:48 AM

JERUSALEM, July 14 (Reuters) - The gas platform for the Leviathan natural gas field is on its way to Israel from the Gulf of Mexico, the partners in the project said on Sunday.

The first of four barges transporting the production structure units has left Texas and the other three will set sail in the coming weeks. In September, all the units will be installed on the jacket of the platform already in place 10 kilometres from Israel’s shore.

After connecting the units to the platform, Noble Energy , one of Leviathan’s partners, will start a series of commissioning tests before initiating commercial gas flow to the domestic market before the end of 2019.

Earlier this month, testing of a subsea natural gas pipeline to Egypt was completed, in the wake of a deal to export $15 billion in gas to a customer in Egypt.

Leviathan, with 22 trillion cubic feet of reserves, was discovered in 2010 and is one of the world’s largest gas discoveries of the past decade. 

Israel has a surplus of oil but with the political stakes high, leaders grapple with how to play it - INDEPENDENT / THE NEW YORK TIMES

7/7/2019
Clifford Krauss

Low prices, environmental and political considerations taken into account as country decides whether to exploit natural resource 

For decades, Israel was an energy-starved country surrounded by hostile, oil-rich neighbours.

Now it has a different problem. Thanks to major offshore discoveries over the past decade, it has more natural gas than it can use or readily export.

Having plenty of gas is hardly a burden, and it offers a cleaner-burning alternative to Israel’s longtime power sources. But it presents challenges for a country that wants to extract geopolitical and economic benefits from a rare energy windfall, including building better relations with its neighbours and Europe.

Part of the problem is timing. Just as Israel prepares to produce and export large amounts of gas, the United States, Australia, Qatar and Russia are flooding the market with cheap gas. The other is maths: Israel’s 8.5 million people use in a year less than 1 per cent of the gas that has been found in the country’s waters.

Exxon Is in Talks Over Floating LNG Partnership in Israel - BLOOMBERG

April 10, 2019, 8:59 PM GMT+3Yaacov Benmeleh

• Project reflects Exxon’s growing ambitions in East Med region
• Talks come as unofficial energy boycott on Israel seen fading

Exxon Mobil Corp. is in discussions to build a platform that would expand the export reach of Israel’s biggest natural gas field, according to people familiar with the matter. Israeli gas stocks rose.

The world’s largest publicly-traded oil and gas company is in talks with the firms developing Israel’s Leviathan reservoir to build a floating liquefied natural gas ship, the people said, requesting anonymity because the matter is private. Such a project would allow the Leviathan partners to export to countries not reachable with pipelines and avoid the need to build expensive infrastructure to connect to LNG facilities in Egypt.

It’s possible the discussions ultimately won’t lead to a partnership, the people cautioned. An Exxon representative declined to comment on its intentions in Israel. The company recently made a major gas discovery nearby, off the coast of Cyprus.

“It’s too early to comment on specific development and production timelines” for the Cyprus discovery, the representative said.

Despite considerable gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean region over the past decade, viable export routes have proven tough to find and global energy firms haven’t rushed in. The Leviathan partners have signed deals to meet surging demand in Egypt, Jordan and Israel, but haven’t yet found a way to export to Europe or East Asia.