The Egyptian Minister of Petroleum (pictured) today unveiled a plan to increase gas imports from Israel. Minister Tarek al-Mullah told Reuters that Egypt aims to increase gas imports from Israel to 600-650 million cubic feet per day by the first quarter of 2022. 

It should be noted that Egypt currently imports about 450 million cubic feet of gas from Israel. According to him, increasing imports will require the construction of a new land pipeline between the countries in 2024 or 2025.

Egypt plans to export 60-65 million cubic feet per day of gas to Lebanon as part of a U.S.-backed plan to alleviate the electricity crisis there. Gas to Lebanon is growing, as it became known today that Qatar is also interested in supplying gas to Lebanon via Jordan and Syria.

Egypt and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding a few days ago that will increase the gas supply and use the existing pipeline to transport hydrogen in the future.