THE Supreme Administrative Court at the weekend issued a ruling allowing Egyptian natural gas to be exported to Israel and other countries. The ruling came after the Government appealed a previous ruling passed in November 2008 by the Administrative Court to suspend the export of natural gas to the Jewish state. The Saturday ruling, though leaving it to the State to decide to whom it exports natural gas, whether Israel or any other country, also stipulates that local needs of this commodity must be taken into account, as well as world prices of natural gas. The court clearly criticised the Government for many violations, including the fact that the exporting contract does not include a mechanism for periodical revision of quantities and prices of the exported gas. This is despite the fact that the contract is a very long one. Originally 15 years, it has now been extended to 20 years. Therefore, the court has committed the Prime Minister and Minister of oil to cancel the minimum and maximum price of the gas included in the contract, so global price fluctuations can be taken into account. The ruling has disappointed many Egyptians who wanted exports of natural gas to Israel to be stopped immediately, not just because of the local shortage of different sources of energy, but also because of public opposition to the Israeli policies in the occupied territories. The public don't want to have any economic dealings with a country that refuses to comply with international law and end its occupation of Palestinian territories. Nevertheless, because the ruling stipulates that local needs of this commodity must be met before considering exporting to any country, while exporting it according to the world market prices, the ruling might put an end to the apparent squandering of this precious resource. This is because Israel might not agree to purchase Egyptian gas at the world prices, which are much higher than the price in the contract.
