Official sources in the Ministry of Petroleum have confirmed the authenticity of the news that has been published by the Israeli Yediot Aharonot about an agreement between Egypt, Israel and the East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG) to increase the prices of the Egyptian exported natural gas to Israel. Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmi will soon announce the details of the negotiations, but he would not reveal the new price because the contract forbids it.
Yediot Aharonot revealed yesterday that the agreement was signed in Cairo last Sunday after lengthy negotiations since October of last year. It added that it is the Egyptian government that asked for the increase due to the higher world prices of energy. However, the daily cast doubt on this reason, attributing this call to the growing Egyptian opposition against the export of the Egyptian natural gas to Israel and the lawsuits calling for canceling this deal. The paper also mentioned that the new agreement deprives Israel of the privileged prices, thanks to which the Israel Electric Corporation provided subsidized services for its citizens. The text of the agreement stipulates that committees would be formed to review the prices in case of significant increases in world prices of energy.
For their part, sources with the Petroleum Ministry said that the Egyptian side managed, after marathon negotiations, to get many benefits from the recent agreement, topped by not fixing the price for a period of time, as it would be fixed in accordance with the market mechanisms and changes in energy prices. It is noteworthy that the Egyptian natural gas has started to flow to Israel since last May under an agreement signed in 2005 with EMG to provide Tel Aviv with 1.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually for 15 years, but the opposition forces and political movements organized campaigns to force the government to stop pumping gas to Israel.
