On Thursday, Israel may resume gas exports. So far we are talking about small volumes. Due to the lack of supplies, Jordan and Egypt are forced to use more expensive alternative fuels and limit consumption.
"We will probably approve some supplies to Egypt and Jordan, possibly as early as tomorrow, after gas exports from Israel have been completely stopped over the past five days," Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said, Bloomberg reports.
According to him, Tel Aviv gives priority to the domestic market and the resumption of supplies will be small. Exports will stop if Israel does not have enough gas itself, the minister added. He did not say whether production would resume at two of the three fields in The Mediterranean Sea, which is why deliveries abroad have stopped.
The Israeli Navy regularly assesses the possibility of resuming operations at the Leviathan and Karish, and the ministry will follow the instructions of the military, said Eli Cohen: "They see that we are at war. I don't want to use our strategic storage facilities, so I had to reduce exports."
Last Friday, Israel launched strikes against Iran and, for security reasons, ordered the cessation of production at two of the three gas fields in its sector of the Mediterranean Sea.
The reduction in production immediately led to a halt in exports. For Jordan, Israel has generally been the only source of gas lately, since the used floating terminal left the country in the spring and is due to start work in Egypt in the summer. In Egypt, Israeli gas provides 15-20% of consumption. In a country that has become a major importer of LNG, only one of the planned four terminals is still operating.
The gas shortage has already led to the fact that both countries are making large purchases of petroleum products, which are used instead of gas at power plants. In addition, the Egyptian authorities had to limit the supply of gas to fertilizer plants.