The planned 600 mn cubic feet a day (cfd) Nitzana pipeline to boost Israeli gas exports to Egypt is facing delays over volume allocation and cost burden disagreement between Chevron’s Leviathan and Tamar field partners and Israel’s Natural Gas Authority, according to industry publication Middle East Economic Survey (Mees). Originally slated for launch this year, the pipeline’s start-up has been postponed to 1H 2028, according to Leviathan partner NewMed Energy.

The delay will cap Israeli gas exports to Egypt at 1.6 bn cfd from 2H 2026, limiting Egypt’s ability to secure a more affordable alternative to costly LNG shipments amid rising domestic demand and declining production. Israel exported 1.0 bn cfd of gas to Egypt in 1Q 2025, but plans are in place to increase exports to 1.6 bn cfd by 2H 2025 through upgrades to the EMG pipeline and new compression stations in Jordan.

Nitzana pipeline? Nitzana is a proposed 65 km onshore gas pipeline connecting Israel’s southern gas network to Egypt’s gas network in eastern Sinai. With a planned capacity of 600 mn cfd, the pipeline aims to increase Israel’s gas export capacity to Egypt to 2.2 bn cfd, up from the current 1.6 bn cfd cap.

We currently buy Israeli gas at half the price of LNG imports — but that could change. Israeli gas is priced at under USD 6/mmBtu, but there are “rumors circulating both in Egypt and Israel that the partners at Leviathan and Tamar could look to hike the price of gas they sell to Egyptian state-backed offtaker Blue Ocean Energy,” the Mees report reads. Similarly, two industry insiders also told Reuters last week that Israel is lobbying for a 25% hike to its Egypt-bound gas exports.

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