Israel will start exporting natural gas to Egypt after Eastern Mediterranean Gas (EMG) and Israel's Europe Asia Pipeline Co. said on Sept. 8 that they had signed an agreement allowing the former to use a second terminal to export natural gas to Egypt.

According to oil experts and economists, the deal has removed the last obstacle to the start of gas exports from Israel to Egypt. On Feb. 19, 2018, Israel's Delek Drilling company and Texas-based Noble Energy announced the signing of a 10-year contract worth $15 billion with the Egyptian Dolphinus Holdings company to export natural gas to Egypt. The two companies decided in September 2018 to buy stakes in EMG’s pipeline to facilitate the deal.

“Israel was finding a major obstacle in providing an offshore pipeline to supply gas produced from Israeli offshore fields of Tamar and Leviathan to the Egyptian grid. After signing the agreement, EMG’s pipeline would be used to link the Israeli city of Ashkelon to el-Arish in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula,” Ahmed el-Shami, professor of feasibility studies at Ain Shams University, told Al-Monitor.

Shami said that in spite of the fact the deal is between private companies, the Egyptian government will indirectly benefit from it and the deal will increase state revenues.