There is growing criticism in Egypt to a recent massive deal for the import of additional amounts of Israeli gas, especially in the light of political differences between Cairo and Tel Aviv over Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.
The new deal expands a 2018 agreement between an Egyptian and an Israeli company for the import of 64 billion cubic metres of gas from Israel's Tamar and Leviathan fields over ten years for $15 billion.
It will add 130 billion cubic metres of gas from Leviathan field through 2040 for a whopping $35 billion, the most expensive export deal as per Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen.
The same figure vexes some Egyptian observers who cite the dangers of dependence on Israeli gas, especially with Cairo and Tel Aviv locking horns over numerous regional issues, particularly Israel's war on Gaza, described most recently by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as "systematic genocide".
Former labour minister Kamal Abu Eita called for taking the people inked this deal to trial. "How can we strike deals with a country that commits all this killing in the Palestinian territories?" he asked, vowing to take legal action against the people who signed the deal.
"I will keep fighting against this deal to the last breath," Abu Eita told The New Arab.
Egypt got a sense of the dangers inherent in dependence on Israeli gas imports with the start of the Israeli war on Gaza in October 2023, after Israel reduced the amounts of gas pumped to it via the al-Arish-Ashkelon pipeline, a 90-kilometre submarine pipeline connecting the Egyptian city of al-Arish in Sinai and Ashkelon in southern Israel.
This drop in supplies came at a time Egypt suffered a marked decline in domestic production, which undermined its ability to keep its electricity plants running and provide electricity to its population of over 107 million.
The same drop also came amid some estimates that Tel Aviv used gas as a pressure card against Cairo, which was growing critical of the atrocities it commits in Gaza and the limits it set on the entry of humanitarian aid to the war-torn Palestinian territory.
Apart from criticising Israel, Egypt also turned down requests for taking in Gaza's refugees, initially proposed by Israel, and then by US President Donald Trump, who wanted to build the coastal enclave into a "Middle East Riviera" and displace the entire Palestinian population.
This Egyptian rejection added more fuel to the simmering coals of tensions with Tel Aviv, analysts said.
The unreliable nature of Israeli gas supplies was proven earlier this year even more when Israel suspended these supplies during its war with Iran.
Scoring a goal?
Back in February 2018 when the $15 billion import deal was signed with Israel, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi equated this development with "scoring a goal".
At the time, Egypt had ambitious plans to use output from promising gas finds off its Mediterranean coast in turning into a regional energy hub.
Cairo also hoped to use its sprawling liquefaction facilities in Idku and Damietta in achieving the same goal by collecting regional gas, liquefying it and then sending it back to the international market, making money from the difference between import and re-export prices.
These hopes collapsed because of one serious development: a significant drop in local production.
By October 2024, Egypt's natural gas production dropped to a seven-year low of 4.5 billion cubic feet per day, falling short of demand by roughly 1.6 billion cubic feet per day.
The options for Cairo were strictly limited. Other distant regional suppliers would provide a much more pricey gas, given the high cost of liquefied natural gas (LNG), compared to pipeline gas.
This made the Israeli gas a lot cheaper than the LNG Egypt could get from other suppliers in pure economic and business terms, specialists said.
"We are talking here about a long-term agreement that brings in gas from a neighbouring country, which should translate into a good price, compared to gas that can come from other distant countries," Amr Adly, a political science assistant professor at the American University in Cairo, argued to TNA.
Israeli pipeline gas is estimated to cost Egypt around $7.75 per million British thermal units, while LNG imports are significantly pricier at approximately $13.50 per million British thermal units.
This cost-efficient nature of Israeli exports is probably one aspect of Egypt's dependence on this gas.
Losses outweighing gains?
In hammering out these import deals with Israel, Egypt does not appear to view them from merely an economic angle, but also from a geostrategic-security perspective.
This perspective was outlined by Egypt's former minister of petroleum Osama Kamal in an interview over the phone with a local television channel a few days ago.
Back in May 1994, Kamal was still a young projects engineer at the government-owned oil company Enppi.
He was asked by then-petroleum minister Hamdi al-Bambi to oversee the construction of a pipeline that would transport Egyptian gas to Israel, passing by Sinai.
The pipeline's construction was ordered by then-president Hosni Mubarak, who viewed it as a way to spread peace, Kamal claimed.
The presence of shared economic interests makes countries think twice before they embark on any hostility, the former minister of petroleum said.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel in 1979.
Nevertheless, in the years that followed the construction of the pipeline mentioned by former minister Kamal, a lot has changed in the status of Egypt and Israel as far as natural gas production was concerned. The two countries experienced what can be termed as a "role reversal".
Egypt is now reverting to imports, with its local production dropping, and Israel is becoming a gas exporter, capitalising on the huge reserves it has off its Mediterranean coast.
Abu Eita, now a leading labour rights advocate, says he has documents proving that some of the gas fields off Israel's Mediterranean coast originally belong to Egypt.
Egypt's dependence on gas coming from these fields has been increasing, with some estimates putting it at between 15 and 20 percent of all the gas consumed nationwide at present.
Reliance on natural gas for electricity production is also increasing in this country, with gas constituting 48.7 percent of the fuel used in generating electricity in 2023, whereas oil made up 43.8 percent, according to the Paris-based intergovernmental organisation, International Energy Agency.
Nonetheless, those opposing the latest import deal with Israel give vent to this opposition in different forms and on different media.
"Those who have not rejected or denounced the gas import deal with Israel have lost their own credibility, regardless of who they are," Israeli affairs specialist Mohamed Seif al-Dawla wrote on X.
Other people warned against the deal giving Israel the chance to manipulate Egypt.
Opposition to the deal also partly boils down to its timing, particularly when tensions between Cairo and Tel Aviv reaching an unprecedented height and Israel now deciding to fully occupy Gaza.
The deal, part of overall expanding trade relations between Egypt and Israel, also comes as Gaza suffers an Israeli-imposed starvation. Egypt has expressed opposition to Israeli practices in Gaza, as well as the Gaza occupation scenario.
However, nationally-minded observers like Adly call for translating this opposition into action.
"Regardless of the gains Egypt can make from such a deal, these gains cannot outweigh the dangers inherent in it," Adly said.
"Long-term dependence on Israeli gas can prove very harmful to Egypt, especially given the hostile and extremist nature of the current government in Israel," he added.