Sisi says government not part of gas deal with Israel

CAIRO – 21 February 2018: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi said Wednesday that Egypt has gas facilities and laboratories that don’t exist in other gas-producing countries in the Middle East, enabling the country to be a regional hub of energy.

During the inauguration of two investors’ centers on Wednesday, Sisi described progress made in terms of gas finds in Egypt by “scoring a goal.”

Commenting on Egypt’s import of gas from Israel per a deal with the private Egyptian company Dolphinus, Sisi said that the government is not part of the deal. He further lauded the huge attention to the issue by the Egyptians since the news surfaced.

Around 64 BCM of natural gas from Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan reservoirs will be exported to private Egyptian company Dolphinus over a decade for $15 billion, according to a Monday statement by Delek Drilling, one of the two companies leading gas projects in reservoirs.

The agreement stipulates that the supply will continue until 2030 or until the 64 billion cubic meters have been fulfilled, whichever is sooner.

Sisi clarified that Egypt consumes around $12 -13 million of petroleum derivatives per year.

The two newly opened investors’ centers are located in 6 of October city in Giza governorate and Gamasa city in northern Delta. Through these centers, investors will be able to finalize all related regulations without dealing directly with the Ministry of Investment.

Sisi urged to make the best use of gas in petrochemical industries, which in return will be an added-value, instead of solely using it as a fuel, which brings the lowest revenue.

Sisi noted that a new law recently passed by the parliament guarantees Egypt’s benefit from the gas, either by manufacturing or exporting it to other countries.

The Egyptian Parliament passed a new law to regulate the activities of the gas market; the law will help attract the private sector to invest in storing and selling natural gas directly to consumers.



Egypt is expected to stop importing liquefied gas by June 2018, after the production of its giant Zohr gas field began by the end of 2017; Zohr contains about 850 billion cubic meters (30 trillion cubic feet) of gas.

In addition to Zohr, Egypt accomplished three other gas production projects which are Torres and Libra, Atoll, and Norse.

These four projects added 1.6 billion cubic feet of gas per day to raise Egypt’s daily production to 5.5 billion cubic feet a day.

Deputy Chairman of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) for production and fields’ development Mohamed Abdel Azim said earlier that Egypt’s natural gas production will reach some six billion cubic feet a day by the end of fiscal year 2017/18.

The new discoveries are expected to turn Egypt into a net exporter of natural gas as the country is expected to halt gas imports by mid 2018.