Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) said on Sunday that they will appeal against the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration ruling that they compensate Israeli Electric Corporation (IEC) and Eastern Mediterranean Gas (EMG) with $1.7 billion and $288 million respectively. Reacting to the news, Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said that negotiations between private Egyptian and Israeli companies to import gas from Israel will be halted. Private companies have received orders from the Egyptian government to freeze dialogue on gas importation from Israel, until a decision is made on Egypt’s appeal against the recent ruling. In addition, the government will suspend the issuance of permits to companies cooperating with Israel on gas deals. Ismail added that the appeal will be submitted within the next six weeks. Both EGAS and EGPC are Egyptian state-owned companies, while IEC is a state-owned Israeli electricity company. Egypt has been selling gas to Israel for 20 years, but stopped after a militant insurgency in Sinai led to several concurrent attacks on the gas pipelines in 2012. Globes, an Israeli business news outlet reported on Sunday that the arbitration…
Egyptian Companies Ordered to Pay $US 1.7 Billion to Israeli Gas Company
December 6, 2015
