‘ISRAEL’ SELLS STOLEN PALESTINIAN GAS TO EGYPT

Al-Quds, 7 Jumadil Akhir 1436/27 March 2015 (MINA) – Israeli firm has signed an agreement to sell the stolen Palestinian gas under Mediterranean seabed to the Egypt, Israeli firm said on Wednesday.

Tamar Partners said that they signed a seven-year deal with Dolphinus Holdings, a firm that represents non-governmental, industrial and commercial consumers in Egypt, to buy at least $1.2 billion of natural gas from via the old pipeline built to send gas to the Israeli occupation.

An Israeli energy source said the total export amount in the deal could be more than three times higher, depending on demand in Egypt, which is facing an energy crisis, Days Palestine quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The supplies will pass through an underwater pipeline constructed nearly a decade ago by East Mediterranean Gas (EMG), the company that oversaw a now-defunct Egyptian-Israeli natural gas deal.

Egypt had been selling gas to the Israeli occupation in a 20-year agreement, but the deal collapsed in 2012 after months of attacks on the pipeline by militants in Egypt’s lawless Sinai Peninsula. It has since been out of commission and EMG is suing the government of Egypt for damages.

Recent offshore discoveries such as Tamar, with an estimated 280 bcm of gas, and Leviathan, which is more than twice as big, have illegally turned previously import-dependent the Israeli occupation into a potential energy exporter.

Tamar’s shareholders that are traded in Tel Aviv – Delek Drilling, Avner Oil and Isramco Negev – were up 4-5 percent, outpacing modest gains in the broader market.

Texas-based Noble Energy is the field’s operator.

Delek Drilling Chairman Yossi Abu said the deal shows that the Israeli occupation can be “an energy anchor for countries in the region” and that, along with a pipeline of export agreements under negotiation, it will “radically change Israeli geopolitical status.”

According to international law, the Israeli occupation is violating the rights of the Palestinians as the law stipulates that the occupier of a country has to protect its natural resources, not deplete them.

The Israeli occupation is doing the opposite of what the law is stipulating. It is not only depleting the natural gas owned by the Palestinians for its own interests, but also prevents the Palestinians from benefiting from this kind of clean energy.(T/R05/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)