Israel's Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz and Egyptian Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Tarek El Molla visited the Leviathan natural gas rig on Monday.
The visit took place a day after they both agreed to work toward an agreement between their countries to connect Israel’s Leviathan gas field to facilities owned by the Egyptian Liquefied Natural Gas company via an offshore pipeline. The agreement would make it easier for Israel to export liquefied gas to Europe through the Egyptian plants.
 
Molla said he heard about the impact on the development of Israel's energy economy since the discovery of natural gas in the Mediterranean Sea, and added that he was impressed by the rig, which just about a year ago - in January 2020 - began exporting natural gas to Egypt.
"For more than a year now, the natural gas produced at the Leviathan gas rig has flowed into Egypt and some of it has even passed through existing liquefaction facilities in Egypt to European countries," Energy Minister Dr. Yuval Steinitz said.
"This is the first and largest cooperation of its kind since the peace agreement signed between Egypt and Israel 40 years ago. We are discussing its expansion. Egypt is becoming a regional gas center and we are happy to take part in this partnership. "
The Israeli and Egyptian energy ministers were the founders of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum.
 
Along with Israel exporting natural gas to Egypt for the past year, this marks the most significant economic cooperation between the countries since peace agreements were signed between them almost 42 years ago, Steinitz said.
 
They also discussed ways to increase the Palestinians’ energy independence, including developing a Gaza marine field, the establishment of a power plant in Jenin and supplying natural gas to the Palestinians.
Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.