Egypt might have to buy back gas from Israel at seven times the price

According to the Egyptian press the government, in view of power shortages caused by insufficient domestic gas supply to power stations, is contemplating the possibility of re-purchasing around 1.5 billion m³ of natural it supplied to Israel.

Back in July 2005 the Egyptian petroleum and mineral resources minister Sameh Fahmy and the Israeli infrastructure minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer signed a $2.5 billion gas deal to supply the Israeli Electric Corporation with 1.7 billion m³ per year.

According to inside sources the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum would have to repurchase Egyptian gas for around $14 billion, sold to Israel for $2 billion dollars, effectively donating Tel Aviv $12 billion dollars.

Source: Arab Monitor

For more news and expert analysis about Egypt, please see Egypt Politics & Security.

RWE signs $3.6 billion gas project deal with Egypt

RWE has signed a $3.6 billion deal with the Egyptian government for developments in the North Alexandria and West Mediterranean Deep Water concessions. The agreement was approved by the Egyptian Cabinet and the Egyptian Parliament, in Cairo, was signed together with the Egyptian Petroleum minister, Sameh Fahmy, the Egyptian state-owned company EGPC and the operator BP.

RWE's share of the North Alexandria and West Mediterranean Deep Water concessions equates to around 50 billion cubic metres of natural gas, and is the largest single investment for the upstream company to date.

“Our aim is to proceed with this field development at a rapid pace, so that we can go into production by 2014. Amongst other field development projects of RWE Dea, such as Breagh in the United Kingdom and Gjøa in Norway, North Alexandria will make a substantial contribution to the company's growth target, which is to double production over the next five years,” said Thomas Rappuhn, chief executive officer of RWE.

The concessions located in the offshore region of the West Nile Delta, some 40km off the coast of Egypt, include the Raven natural gas fields in the high-temperature and high-pressure depth domain which extends into the West Mediterranean Deep Water concession. A majority of the total investment, around $ 9 billion, will be spent in the North Alexandria concession. The investment will be split between BP (60 per cent) and RWE (40 per cent) respectively.

To find out more about RWE please visit RWE's web site, which you can find here.

For more news and expert analysis about Egypt, please see Egypt Politics & Security.

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