Israel hopes to soon resume talks with the Egyptian government on the export of natural gas, said Israeli Minister of energy after authorities in Cairo stopped negotiations because of a sanction was decided against Egypt in an arbitration process with Israel, writes Bursa.

The freezing of negotiations between the two countries followed the decision of the International Arbitration Court in Paris that has decreed that the Egyptian government must pay Israel a sum of 1.73 billion dollars for supply contracts that were suspended by Cairo. Stopping the supplies caused significant damage for Israel Electric Power Company, says Israeli Energy Ministry.

“Israel attaches great importance to its ties energy with Egypt and hopes that, thanks to tight bilateral ties, it will be possible to quickly progress on the gas issue. Israel must rapidly develop its deposits of offshore gas to secure energy security,” said the Israeli Minister of Energy, writes Agerpres.

Also, Israel plans to expand gas exports to Jordan, Turkey and Western Europe, the Israeli official added.

In parallel with discussions led by the two governments, companies that develop offshore Leviathan deposit announced that they will continue negotiations with private firms in Egypt who did not take part in the arbitration. According to information obtained by Bloomberg, an Egyptian group of companies negotiate the purchase of four billion cubic meters of Israeli gas per year in the next 10-15 years.