Egypt terminates controversial gas supply deal with Israel

Cairo: Egypt has terminated a controversial long-term gas supply deal with Israel, media reported on Sunday.

According to reports Istael, Ampal-American Israel Corporation, which owns a stake in a company that exports natural gas from Egypt to Israel said on Sunday that Egypt has terminated gas supply deal with Israel.

Ampal said in a statement that its partner company, East Mediterreanean Gas Company (ENG), “considers the termination attempt unlawful and in bad faith, and consequently demanded its withdrawal,” adding that EMG, Ampal, and EMG’s other international shareholders were “considering their options and legal remedies as well as approaching the various governments.”

The accord was “annulled on Thursday with the East Mediterranean Gas Co (EMG) which exports gas to Israel because the company failed to respect conditions stipulated in the contract,” EMG chairman Mohamed Shoeib told media.
The sale of gas to Israel, which signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, has always been controversial in the Arab world’s most populous country.
A pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula that has been used to supply Egyptian gas to Israel and Jordan was hit by a bomb blast on April 9, in the 14th such attack since the uprising which toppled president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.
Egypt has been gripped by security-related problems since the revolt.
Gas deliveries to Israel, agreed under Mubarak, have come under heavy criticism in Egypt. Israel generates 40 percent of its electricity using natural gas, and Egypt provides 43 percent of its gas supplies.