Chevron CEO says Israel gas pipeline could supply Europe amid crisis - THE JERUSALEM POST

MARCH 8, 2022 13:00
BEN ZION GAD, REUTERS 

Europe's natural gas shortage, which has pushed prices to multi-year highs, has revived talk of the EastMed pipeline – a Mediterranean Sea pipeline that could carry gas from Israel to European customers, Chevron Chief Executive Michael Wirth said on Monday at the CERAWeek energy conference.

Wirth downplayed concerns over global oil supplies amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the subsequent potential for an energy crisis.

The EastMed pipeline, meant to transfer natural gas from Israeli waters to Europe via Greece and Cyprus, was announced in 2016, and several agreements have been signed between the three countries on the subject. They aim to complete the €6 billion ($6.54 b.) project by 2025, but no financing has been secured for it as of yet.

East Med Gas Forum ‘evolving into international organisation’ - CYPRUS MAIL

APRIL 18 2019 

ELIAS HAZOU

The East Med Gas Forum (EMGF) will be meeting again in June with the purpose of evolving into an international organisation, energy minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis said Thursday.

Speaking at the 9th Nicosia Economic Congress, Lakkotryrpis said that he hoped the forum – consisting of Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Territories – will take the form of an international organisation.

The forum is necessary in order for eastern Mediterranean gas to be competitive, while member states are discussing issues such as the preferred infrastructure for the optimal exploitation of hydrocarbons wealth.

The region faces many “challenges,” Lakkotrypis said, which is one of the reasons why the United States and the EU support are supporting the EMGF as observers.

Egypt’s imports of Israeli gas delayed to mid-2019 due to pipeline doubts - ENTERPRISE

Monday, 18 March 2019

Egypt’s imports of Israeli gas delayed to mid-2019 due to pipeline doubts: Egypt will begin receiving its first shipments of Israeli gas in the middle of this year, two sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Egypt’s East Gas originally expected trial shipments from Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan gas fields to begin this month, but the sources said that the pipeline still requires further maintenance. Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla also told the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston last week that Egypt will start importing Israeli gas by mid-2019.

Background: East Gas, Noble Energy and Delek Drilling last year signed a USD 518 mn deal for a 39% stake in Ashkelon-Arish pipeline operator Eastern Mediterranean Gas (EMG), which was supposed to have paved the way for Egypt to begin importing an initial 100 mn scf/d in 1Q2019. In the time since, doubt has been raised over the capability of Israel’s domestic pipeline infrastructure to handle the quantity of gas agreed in last year’s USD 15 bn gas deal. The two countries began talks in January over the construction of a new subsea pipeline that would enable Israeli gas to flow directly to Egypt’s Idku facility, eliminating the need to expand Israel’s onshore infrastructure.

Pipeline Snag to Delay Israel Gas to Egypt for 3 Months - BLOOMBERG

March 17, 2019, 2:47 PM GMT+2

Yaacov Benmeleh

• Egypt expects to get first test flows mid-year, not March
• Israel will pipe gas to Egypt under a $15 billion deal

Egypt will begin receiving gas from Israel under a $15 billion deal around the middle of the year, after unexpected issues with the pipeline connecting the two countries delayed the start-up by several months, people familiar with the situation said.

Egyptian Oil Minister Tarek El-Molla told the CERAWeek conference in Houston last week that the government expects the first flows of Israeli gas to arrive around mid-year.

He didn’t give details, but two people familiar with the situation said due diligence by the companies involved had discovered that the pipeline would require more work than expected to bring it online. The Egyptian partner in the project had said he expected trial quantities to begin flowing in March if the pipeline was found to be in good condition.

The companies developing Israel’s largest natural gas fields and their Egyptian partner agreed last year to buy a 39 percent of the East Mediterranean Gas Co., which owns the sub-sea pipeline connecting southern Israel to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, clearing the main legal obstacle to the 10-year export contract.

Israel expects decision on East Med gas pipeline to Europe in 2019 - REUTERS

THU MAR 8, 2018 / 1:43 PM EST
Ron Bousso

(Reuters) - Israel expects a decision to go ahead with the construction of a 2,000 kilometer (1,243 mile) pipeline linking vast eastern Mediterranean gas resources to Europe to be made by early 2019, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told Reuters.

The pipeline, which will cross from Israel and Cyprus into Greece and Italy in deep waters, would mark a major milestone for the rapidly developing gas industry in the Levantine Basin in the east corner of the Mediterranean, offering access to a large market.

The European Union considers the pipeline, estimated to cost $7 billion, as "extremely competitive" as the four partner countries continue construction plans for the technically complex line, Steinitz told Reuters late on Wednesday on the sidelines of the CERAWeek conference in Houston.

"This summer we will reach a detailed agreement between the four founding states of the East Med pipeline and at the beginning of 2019 we hope to see a final investment decision," he said.

Lebanon: Israel's maritime zone law means war - GLOBES

23 Mar, 2017 11:24
Nati Yefet

Lebanese parliament spokesman Nabih Berri said that Israel's proposed law on the energy-rich disputed waters could trigger a war.
The speaker of the Lebanese parliament Nabih Berri claims that the maritime zone law that Israel is formulating, and includes declaring some 860 square kilometers of disputed waters as Israeli territory, could trigger a war between the countries, reports the Lebanese newspaper "Al Joumhouria."

Berri said, "This is a new assault by Israel on Lebanese sovereignty. What has been revealed by Israeli media was not arbitrary, but rather reveals a path taken by Israel in a bid to control Lebanon's gas and oil wealth within Lebanese economic borders.”

“Anyway, if the Israeli disposition is correct, which I tend to believe, it is tantamount to a war sparked by Israel. It is another maritime Shebaa Farms Conflict which opens the situation to many dangerous possibilities."

Israel Looks to Mediterranean Gas as Stabilizing Force in the Region - FORBES

FEB 28, 2016, Christopher Coats

Israel’s minister of infrastructure, energy and water, Yuval Steinitz promoted the idea of Eastern Mediterranean natural gas a stabilizing force in the region this past week, in remarks made at the IHS Energy CERAWeek in Houston.

The minister suggested that natural gas produced in the region and a functioning transport infrastructure could ease regional tension by providing ample energy resources to all those countries in need of it.

“I think it might serve stability at least in part of the Middle East,” said Steinitz.