- Title: EGYPT: EGYPT AND ISRAEL SIGN AN AGREEMENT ON SALES OF EGYPTIAN GAS TO ISRAEL
- Date: 30th June 2005
- Summary: (MER1) CAIRO, EGYPT (JUNE 30, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) (PART MUTE) 1. SLV ITIHADIYA PRESIDENTIAL PALACE 0.04 2. PAN EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK MEETING THE ISRAELI INFRASTRUCTURE MINISTER BENJAMIN BEN ELIEZER. (MUTE) 0.22 3. CU SIGN AT THE PALACE 0.25 4. MCU (English) ISRAELI INFRASTRUCTURE MINISTER BENJAMIN BEN ELIEZER SA
- Embargoed: 15th July 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Egypt
- Country: Egypt
- Reuters ID: LVADBHVHGVZHGLGY21NV7L76UWAB
- Story Text: Egypt and Israel sign an agreement on sales of Egptian gas to Israel.
The Egyptian and Israeli governments signed a long-delayed
2.5-billion U.S. Dollar (USD) agreement on sales of Egyptian natural gas to
Israel on Thursday (June 30, 2005).
Egyptian Oil Minister Sameh Fahmy signed the agreement in Cairo with
visiting Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who
had talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak earlier on Thursday.
Under the 15-year deal, which follows an improvement in relations,
Egypt will sell Israel 1.7 billion cubic metres of gas a year from October
2006 -- a total of about 25 billion cubic metres, Israeli officials said last
week.
After the fifteen year deal lapses there will be an option to extend
the agreement a further five years.
"For me it is a very historical day because this is in fact from
the Israeli point of view this is the most solid thing to show to the Israeli
people that the peace between Egypt and Israel is in a very solid ground; is
existence strong. More than that I believe that this beginning will open the
way for further co-operation and for deepening the relation mainly the
economical one and I believe this will happen," Ben Eliezer said.
But when Ben-Eliezer was asked at the signing ceremony when deliveries
would start, said: "I hope it is, as has been promised, in something like
two years."
Israeli state-owned utility Israel Electric Corp approved an agreement
more than a year ago with Eastern Mediterranean Gas (EMG), a private
Israeli-Egyptian firm, to buy gas from Egypt.
Talks on gas sales had begun in the 1990s but the essential political
agreement was held up by frosty relations during a Palestinian uprising.
Relations have improved as Israel prepares to withdraw from the Gaza
Strip and Egypt brokered an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire in February.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had long pushed for gas purchases
from Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab country to make peace with
Israel, despite opposition from some ministers in his coalition of
over-reliance on Egypt.
EMG will over the next year and a half build a gas pipeline from Egypt
to the coastal Israeli city of Ashkelon.
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