Egypt will begin receiving sharply increased volumes of Israeli natural gas next week, more than tripling current imports as regional tensions ease, a senior official at the state-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) told Al Manassa.
On Wednesday, Israel’s energy ministry officially approved the resumption of domestic gas production, while Israeli energy firm NewMed Energy said the Leviathan field would soon restart exports to Egypt and Jordan.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian government will resume pumping natural gas to several factories that had their supplies suspended in recent days, starting Friday, according to a Cabinet statement issued Wednesday. Israeli gas flows to Egypt have already resumed at partial capacity, ranging between 100 and 150 million cubic feet per day, according to Al Arabiya.
Initial flows of 650 to 750 million cubic feet per day are expected to enter the national grid next week, up from the current 200 million cubic feet, the EGAS source said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Israeli energy companies have conditioned the full resumption of gas exports to Egypt on the return of their staff to work at suspended production fields, Al Arabiya reported.
Gas imports had been halted for two weeks amid the fallout of the recent Israeli-Iranian conflict. Deliveries resumed this week at reduced volumes following a US-brokered ceasefire announced Tuesday by President Donald Trump, 12 days after an Israeli airstrike killed several senior Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists. Iran responded with waves of missile and drone attacks that caused widespread destruction and killed three people on the first day.
Since the conflict in Gaza began, fertilizer companies—heavy consumers of gas—have faced repeated energy supply shortages, severely impacting their production capacity.
On June 13, Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources announced the activation of a pre-prepared emergency plan prioritizing natural gas supply, citing military operations in the region and “the cessation of gas imports from the east,” without directly naming Israeli gas.
According to the EGAS official, the Israeli-Egyptian energy deal includes a ramp-up in supply from the offshore Tamar and Leviathan gas fields to reach 1 billion cubic feet per day in the coming period. Around 80% of that gas will be allocated to restarting fertilizer and petrochemical factories that shut down on June 13 due to the shortage.
Currently, only one fertilizer plant is receiving just enough gas to operate a single production line, in coordination with the Agriculture Ministry to maintain supplies for the domestic market.
Resuming Israeli gas flows could initially enable factories to operate at roughly 70% capacity, equivalent to at least 850 tons of gas per day. This would help mitigate the fertilizer shortage that has driven up prices.
Since 2020, Egypt has relied on imports of Israeli gas to meet its energy needs. In 2024, the country began expanding its use of floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) to cope with declining domestic gas production and irregular Israeli gas flows amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
Separately, EGAS is preparing to receive a new shipment of liquefied natural gas before the end of June. The cargo will be regasified and used to supply power plants across Egypt, helping bridge the gap between domestic production and rising demand. Egypt is currently importing about 750 million cubic feet of gas daily, a figure expected to double once Israeli flows return to full strength.
A senior official at the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), a subsidiary of the petroleum ministry, told Al Manassa in a previous statement that the company aims to operate five regasification vessels during the 2025–2026 fiscal year to address the widening gap in gas demand, which peaks in summer due to high temperatures and increased household consumption.
The local market currently consumes around 6.2 billion cubic feet of gas daily, a figure expected to rise over the summer months as demand surges from power stations that mainly run on gas and fuel oil.
