Egypt refuses to sell gas to Israel

Egypt turned down an Israeli offer to resume negotiations between the two countries to export natural gas to Israel. It was clear that Egypt is not interested in exporting gas to Israel at the present time despite its previous intention to do so.

The Egyptian side stated that previous negotiations had specified all the details of the contracts and that any new discussion would be a waste of time.

The Egyptian position was reinforced after Egypt received a Turkish request to import Egyptian gas, as there will be no surplus gas to be exported to Israel. Egypt had also received European offers to import its gas after the new gas discoveries in the northern region of the Delta.

A source in the Egyptian Ministry of Oil informed ArabicNews.com that Egypt and Jordan are about to reach an agreement through which Jordan will import a portion of the Egyptian natural gas.

The source said that a 270-kilometer gas pipeline will be extended to the port of Aqaba with a completion date of 2001.

Jordanian need for gas are currently filled by Iraq which also provides Jordan with 3.2 million tons of oil and 1.2 million tons of oil products per year.