Dec 24 Israel’s government has given the go ahead to begin exporting natural gas to Egypt, signalling a potential improvement in relations between two countries which have been at loggerheads over energy supplies. Israel will be able to sell 5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Egypt in the coming seven years from the Tamar site off its Mediterranean coast, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said in a statement on Thursday. “After years of delay and debate, we are starting to move forward and to position Israel as a regional natural gas power,” he said. Israel, long an importer of gas, has seen its fortunes transformed by big gas discoveries such as the Tamar field. Egypt had been selling gas to Israel under a 20-year agreement, but that collapsed in 2012 after months of attacks on the pipeline by militants in Egypt’s remote Sinai peninsula. An international arbitrator this […]