The Egyptian company Dolphinus Holdings will start importing Israeli natural gas for re-export in the first quarter of 2019, sources in the Egyptian energy sector told Reuters on Sunday.
“Imports will start in small quantities first and will gradually increase to reach their climax in September 2019,” one of Reuter’s sources said without providing details on prices or quantities.
Dolphinus signed an agreement with the Israeli Delek Drilling and the its Texas-based partner Noble Energy to buy $15 billion worth of gas over 10 years.
Delek and Noble Energy, who are shareholders of Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan offshore gas fields, announced earlier this year that they will supply Dolphinus with around 64 billion cubic meters of gas over a decade. Each field will provide half of the amount and the payment will be split. It remains unclear when Israel will begin exporting the gas to Egypt.
Dolphinus has been waiting to receive approval from the newly-founded Gas Regulatory Authority to start proceeding with the deal. At the same time, Delek’s shareholders agreed in July to invest in the East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG), in order to export gas to Egypt through EMG’s pipeline which links gas fields in Israel to Egyptian export terminals.
