Door still open for East Med-Egypt gas

Despite the country's natural gas sector booming, it could eventually need to import the fuel again

On 14 November, Egypt's oil minister Tarek El-Molla, told Bloomberg that "Egypt will stop importing liquefied natural gas in 2018 and may eventually export gas". This statement appeared to signal an end to the prospect of Eastern Mediterranean gas exports—from Israel and Cyprus—finding a market in Egypt. In Israel, much of the media interpreted his remarks as a sign that the country's hopes of exporting gas from the offshore Leviathan and Tamar gasfields to Egypt were dead. At present, it's hard to imagine a day when Egypt would again be looking abroad for supplies. The second half of 2018 will be a golden moment, with its legacy gasfields still producing strongly, and the first phase of the