The Tamar partners and the Dolphinus Holdings have signed a seven-year agreement on the export of natural gas from the Tamar project to Egypt via the East Mediterranean Gas (EMG) pipeline. The EMG gas pipeline used to transport Egyptian gas to Israel but has been out of service since attacks in 2012. Dolphinus Holdings is a consortium of major Egyptian non-governmental industrial and commercial gas consumers, gas distributors and entrepreneurs. Under the terms of the agreement, the consortium would purchase a minimum 5 bcm of gas from the Tamar field over a period of 3 years (minimum of 1.7 bcm/year). The agreement follows up a letter of intent signed in October 2014.
Discovered in 2009, the Tamar gas field operated by Noble Energy (36%), in partnership with Isramco (28.75%), Avner Oil Exploration (15.625%), Delek Drilling (15.625%) and Dor Gas Exploration (4%). It has an estimated 280 bcm of gas reserves and started production in 2013.
In addition, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) has signed a 5-year agreement with Gazprom to import 35 cargoes of LNG between 2015 and 2020, corresponding to 7 shipments per year (about 0.42 Mt/year).