Israeli, Egyptian Partners Buy into Pipeline to Allow Gas Deal

Israeli and Egyptian partners have agreed to purchase 39 percent of the shares in the EMG pipeline for $518 million, a deal that will enable natural gas exports from Israel to Egypt to begin as early as the start of 2019, the companies said on Thursday.

Under the deal, Israel's Delek Drilling and Texas-based Noble Energy (NBL) who together have been developing Israeli gas fields, will each pay $185 million, while the Egyptian East Gas Co will pay $148 million for the stake in EMG, whose pipeline runs between the two countries.

The deal also includes EMG agreeing to end arbitration with Egypt and dropping claims against Cairo regarding the cancellation of a gas deal several years ago, Delek said in a statement.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Editing by Tova Cohen)