Israel's Tamar gas field to sell gas to Egypt

The partners in Israel's Tamar gas field announced on Sunday they have signed a bid to sell at least five billion cubic meters of natural gas over three years to private consumers in Egypt.

The Tamar partners, led by Texas-based Noble Energy and the Israeli Delek Group, said in a statement that they have signed a letter of intent with Dolphinus Holdings, a consortium of industrial and commercial gas consumers and distributors in Egypt.

The partners said the gas will be sold based on Brent crude oil prices, with estimated revenue of about 700 million U.S. dollars per year.

The gas would be transferred via an old pipeline in Sinai peninsula that was built nearly a decade ago to carry gas from Egypt to Israel. However, gas flow ceased in 2012 given the ousting of the former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and repeated sabotages by Sinai militants.

Earlier on May 5, the Tamar partners planned to transfer one- fifth of their gas in 15 years to Egypt for liquefaction and then exporting abroad.

A few weeks later, the partners in the Leviathan gas field, a consortium also led by Noble Energy and Delek Group, signed a letter of intent to sell seven billion cubic meters to British Gas in Egypt.

Discovered in 2009 off Israel's northern city of Haifa, the Tamar field is believed to contain about 223 billion cubic meters of gas. Production there began in March 2013.

In February, Israel became a gas exporter for the first time when Tamar's partners signed a deal to supply 500 million U.S. dollars worth of gas to two Jordanian companies. Enditem