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Israel, Egypt energy ties so far unaffected by coronavirus crisis, annexation plan

Despite the coronavirus crisis and the annexation plan, agreements to export Israeli natural gas to Egypt remain intact.
An employee walks on the Expedient regasification ship, anchored off the coast of Israel in the Mediterranean Sea on February 26, 2015, as natural gas began flowing from the vessel, hired by the Israel Electric Corporation, to its power stations. The ship, anchored about ten kilometres from the Hadera coast, was connected the previous week to the marine buoy and as of February 25, natural gas has begun flowing from the LNG (liquid natural gas) ship through an underwater pipeline directly to the company's po

It could have happened because of the coronavirus pandemic, or perhaps because of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to annex West Bank settlements. Regardless of the reason, observers anticipated that economic relations between Israel and Egypt and various other Arab states would begin to suffer and that this would impact natural gas exports.

At this stage, however, economic ties between Israel and Egypt have not suffered in the least, and agreements to export Israeli gas to be liquefied in Egyptian facilities are being implemented fully.

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