Egypt MP requests petroleum minister be summoned to explain reports of gas
deal with Israel
Gamal Essam El-Din , Tuesday 20 Feb 2018
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/291351/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-MP-requests-petroleum-minister-be-summoned-t.aspx

Egyptian leftist MP Abdel-Hamid Kamal, who represents the governorate of
Suez, has submitted an urgent information request on Tuesday asking that
Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla be summoned to parliament as soon as
possible to explain to MPs reports that Israel has signed two agreements to
sell gas to Egypt.

Kamal's request, submitted to parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal, said
"importing natural gas from Israel would be in violation of Article 139 of
the constitution, which states that the main job of the president of the
republic is to preserve the people's interests and maintain the independence
of the state and the integrity and safety of its land."

"Any gas deal with Israel goes against this article, as Israel is still an
enemy of Egypt in practical and de facto terms," argued Kamal, who is
affiliated with the leftist Tagammu Party.

Kamal told Ahram Online that "gas deals with Israel pose a big threat to
Egypt's internal security and national economy… It gives Israel, an enemy to
Egypt, a hand to manipulate Egypt's economy, as dependence on gas imports
from the Jewish state for a long period of time will surely be very risky,"
said Kamal.

In his request, Kamal said “I and other MPs were surprised yesterday by
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing that two Israeli
companies –Tamar and Leviathan – have signed a deal with the Egyptian
private company Dolphinus to sell gas to Egypt worth $15 billion.”

"The two Israeli companies will export as much as 64 billion cubic metres of
natural gas to Egypt for 10 years," said Kamal, wondering how this can be
the case given that Egypt celebrated last month the launch of the giant
Mediterranean gas field Zohr.

"Petroleum ministry officials said during the launch that not only will this
field help Egypt meet its local natural gas needs, but also will make the
country a major exporter in future years," said Kamal.

“The deal also raises questions about the private Egyptian company
Dolphinus: who are [the company’s] owners? Does it have foreign partners,
and how were they able to sign a 10-year deal that will do a lot of harm to
the Egyptian economy and delay the liquification of Egyptian gas?”

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said on Twitter yesterday that he welcomes
the historic gas export agreement.

"This will put billions into the state treasury to benefit education, health
and social welfare of Israel's citizens,” Netanyahu said.

The deal triggered wide-scale reactions in Egypt's economic and political
circles yesterday, and was a hot issue on most private TV talk shows on
Monday night.

In response, the Egyptian Natural Gas Regulatory Authority said it is not
aware of the signing of such an agreement.

Authority chairman Karem Mahmoud told Al-Ahram Arabic news website that
companies have the right to sign agreements to import or export gas, but
such agreements must be presented to the authority for approval.

The authority has said in a statement that “there is no certainty” that the
deal will go through given that the legal conditions for such an agreement
have not been met yet."

Egypt passed a new natural gas law last year that allows for competition in
the market by granting licenses to import gas for private companies.