Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Reels After News of Egyptian Gas Find

Energy stocks on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) took the news of a giant new gas find in Egypt coastal waters hard on Wednesday.

Word in the Egyptian media of an impending announcement from Italian energy company Eni brought Delek Group down 3.42 percent, Delek Drilling down 4.46 percent, Isramco down 3.63 percent and Ratio Oil Exploration down 4.70 percent.

The Noor field, with an estimated 2,550 billion cubic meters (BCM) of gas, would be three times larger than Egypt’s Zohr field, over five times larger than Israel’s Leviathan and ten times bigger than the Tamar field.

Former Egyptian Petroleum Minister Osama Kamal said, “If you remember two months ago we said that more discoveries will follow in this area. Hopefully, this great news will be announced by the President and the minister of petroleum in a few days.”

The latest major discovery will move Egypt significantly closer to energy self-sufficiency and casts doubt over the longterm plans of Israeli companies to export gas extracted from Tamar and Leviathan.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian company Dolphinus already signed earlier this year to buy $15 billion of gas from Tamar and Leviathan.