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JERUSALEM, June 2 (Reuters) – Israeli group Delek Drilling hopes to start commercial sales of natural gas in Egypt by the end of the month, a company official said Sunday.
Delek Drilling and partner Noble Energy signed a landmark agreement early last year to export $ 15 billion worth of natural gas from Israeli offshore fields Tamar and Leviathan to a customer in Egypt.
Israeli officials have called the agreement the most important deal ever reached since their neighbors began peace in 1979.
Partners then purchased the submarine EMG pipeline between Ashkelon in Israel and El-Arish in Egypt to transport gas supplies.
"We are continuing the technical testing of the pipeline as planned and hope to be able to deliver natural gas commercially to Egypt by the end of June," Yossi Gvura, deputy general manager of Delek Drilling, told Reuters.
The Tamar field started producing gas in 2013 and Leviathan is expected to be operational by the end of 2019.
Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist reported on Sunday that Tamar's partners had begun final preparations for the 90-kilometer (56-mile) pipeline, sending initial quantities of gas with a probe called "pig".
Delek, a subsidiary of the Israeli energy conglomerate Delek Group, declined to comment on the report. (Report by Ari Rabinovitch, edited by William Maclean)
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