Ghorab: Cutting Off Gas Supplies to Israel is Beyond My Authority

Abdallah Ghorab the Egyptian Minister of Petroleum declared that negotiations were underway with all countries, including Israel, that receive gas from Egypt in order to modify the existing gas exports agreements.

This comes after many protests against selling gas at low prices to Tel Aviv. In the mean time, the Egyptian Minister denied that Egypt had exported gas to Israel at low prices between 1.5 to 2 USD, and clarified that gas export prices should be kept confidential because of competition in the market. Gas export to Israel started in July 2008 based on revised prices.

Ghorab mentioned that the decision of cutting off gas supplies to Israel is beyond his authority. He also confirmed that the quantities exported to Israel represents no more than 4 percent of the total gas production in Egypt.

Egypt produces 6.3 billion cubic feet of gas per day. The Egyptian government signed the controversy agreement in 2005 with the Israeli government to export 1.7 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Israel for 20 years with a price, which was said to range between 70 cents and 1.5 dollars per million Btu while it cost $ 2.65.