CAIRO: Egypt will review natural gas contracts with other states, including Israel and Jordan, which could boost its income from the sales by $3-4 billion, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said on Wednesday. Israel gets 40 percent of its natural gas from Egypt under an arrangement put in place after their landmark 1979 peace accord. State news agency MENA said Sharaf would meet Jordan's Energy Minister Khaled Toukan on Thursday to discuss gas deals and broader energy cooperation. Opposition groups have long complained Egyptian gas was being sold to Israel at preferential prices and that the contract with East Mediterranean Gas (EMG), which supplies Egyptian gas to Israel violated bureaucratic regulations. The government had insisted the deals were done on commercial terms but this review may be a sign it is giving in to public demands for a study of the deals. Egypt's military-backed interim government slashed its forecasts for economic growth and investment after a popular uprising toppled its president, disrupted industry and scared away foreign tourists. Foreign reserves tumbled by almost $5 billion over two months to $30.1 billion at the end of March and the government is searching for ways to bolster foreign currency earnings. Egypt has been boosting gas production but most of the increase covers increased domestic demand as electricity consumption surges in the country of 80 million people. Petroleum Minister Abdullah Ghorab said last month that Egypt was trying to amend gas export deals with a number of countries, particularly Israel. He said media campaigns and public disapproval of gas exports were sufficient basis for negotiating greater benefits for Egypt. Egypt is a modest gas exporter, using pipelines to export to Israel, Jordan and other regional states. It also exports via liquefied natural gas facilities on its north coast, but those are not in the Sinai region.
