Article on Assafir today:
According Oil and Gas journal, Israel wants to reduce its dependencies on the Egyptian gas for two reasons:
- Egypt recently wants to increase the price of gas with the importing countries, especially Israel [See: Egypt raises taxes, fuel prices].
- The increasing public pressure on the Egyptian government to stop the export of Egyptian natural gas to Israel [see: Egypt court freezes Israel gas deal].
Until today, the exploration of Gas at coast of Gaza is done by the “British Gas” since 1990 according to a contract with the Palestinian Authority. The reserves of these fields is estimated at about 25 billion cubic meters, which can provides natural Gas to Israel for 12 years.
Israel tried to block this deal but it failed even after Tony Blair [former British PM] himself tried to mediate between the Israeli government and BG.
The contacts between the Israeli government and BG reestablished back in August, when Israel was busy fine-tuning the Gaza invasion plan.