Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Wednesday said that he had approved the “largest gas deal” in the country’s history, granting an export permit for a $37 billion agreement allowing Chevron and other energy companies to significantly expand gas deliveries to neighboring Egypt.
Mr. Netanyahu trumpeted the agreement, saying it would bolster Israel’s regional position, generate about $18 billion in taxes and other revenue over time and help to ensure that energy prices remain affordable for Israeli consumers.
“This deal greatly strengthens Israel’s status as a regional energy power and contributes to stability in our region,” he said in a statement.
For all the enthusiasm in the announcement, it arrived unusually late, some analysts said — months after the deal was initially reached and announced.
In August, the owners of the Leviathan gas field in Israel — predominantly an Israeli company called NewMed Energy and the American energy giant Chevron — said they had reached an agreement with Egypt to significantly increase and extend a 2019 arrangement.
But unless Israel granted the export permit, the deal between companies there and in Egypt could not be completed. The permit approval from Israel was the final step, a NewMed Energy spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The companies’ decision to announce their agreement with Egypt during the summer, before Israel had finalized terms for approving an export permit, was itself unusual, and most likely reflected the challenges of conducting international business in the region amid the war in Gaza, according to some analysts.
Israel and Egypt both control access to the war-torn enclave, and the Trump administration, which in October brokered a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza with Egypt’s help, sees the two countries as critical to stability and to achieving President Trump’s vision for peace and prosperity in the Middle East.
In a typical situation, said Gabriel Mitchell Mitvin, an energy analyst in Israel and visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund, companies and states, whose cooperation is required for these kinds of deals, all announce the agreement together. The staggered nature of announcements here is “a little abnormal,” he said, and suggests that the companies and Israel were perhaps at odds.
“Chevron is used to getting its way,” Mr. Mitvin said, and the company may have been trying to play “hardball” by making the announcement in August before Israel was ready to grant the permit.
He added, “Trump needed it to get done.”
Israel faced diplomatic pressure, including from the Trump administration, to make the agreement happen. When Israel’s energy minister, Eli Cohen, did not agree to the export permit in October, his American counterpart, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, canceled a visit to Israel planned for the next month.
Israeli leaders presented the delay, however, as a negotiation strategy that secured favorable terms.
When Mr. Wright canceled the visit in October, Mr. Cohen’s office said that he would not approve the deal until there was an agreement on fair prices.
And announcing the deal on Wednesday, Israel’s Energy and Infrastructure Ministry said in a statement that the approval had been granted “following lengthy negotiations” that led to “significant achievements in the areas of price stability, promotion of competition and energy security.”
Gas is vital to Israel’s economy, typically accounting for about 70 percent of electric power generation. Israel sells its excess gas to Egypt and Jordan, though only Egypt is a major buyer. Sales of gas are an important component of the ties between the two countries.
Cairo uses the fuel imported from Israel to generate electric power and run factories, and exports some of it to Europe and other destinations through two liquefied natural gas terminals on the country’s Mediterranean coast. Chevron, which is now the key player in Israel’s energy industry, hopes to use its position in Israel, Egypt and Cyprus as a regional springboard to become a major exporter to Europe.
The deal finalized on Wednesday is important to Israel economically, will help meet Egypt’s energy needs and comes at a “moment that is important,” in light of the many questions about what will happen in Gaza, Mr. Mitvin said.
“The approval of this gas agreement is a historic moment for the state of Israel, both in the security-diplomatic sphere and the economic sphere,” Mr. Cohen, the Israeli energy minister, said in a statement.
Stanley Reed contributed reporting.
Ephrat Livni is a Times reporter covering breaking news around the world. She is based in Washington.
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