Egypt is open to buying natural gas from Israel -sources

Egypt is reportedly still open to buying natural gas from Israel, sources close to the matter tell Bloomberg. Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz spoke to Oil Minister Tarek El Molla last week, after the latter’s interview with Bloomberg about Egypt reaching self-sufficiency and cutting state LNG imports by 2018 “sent shares of Israeli gas companies tumbling on speculation Egypt would halt talks on buying gas from Israel.” El Molla reportedly told Steinitz that while Egypt is open to importing Israeli gas, “any progress on Israel-Egypt gas talks is contingent on first resolving [the] stand-off” over the USD 2 bn fine that a Swiss court has ordered Egyptian gas companies to pay to Israel’s electricity company as compensation for an older agreement.