Israel’s National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources Minister Yuval Steinitz has signed the paperwork for Israel to begin exporting natural gas to Egypt from its Tamar and Leviathan fields in January, Israel business daily Globes reported on Monday.
“For the first time in its history, Israel is becoming an energy exporter. This is the most important economic cooperation between Israel and Egypt since the 1979 peace agreement between the countries,” he said.
“The natural-gas revolution is making us an energy power, and will provide not only enormous revenues for the state, but also a dramatic decrease in air pollution,” he added.
Israel has approved the export of a maximum of 60 billion cubic meters (BCM) of gas from Leviathan and 25 BCM from Tamar over 15 years, according to the report.
Separately on Monday, Globes reported that Intel had announced its purchase of Israeli artificial-intelligence chip developer Habana Labs for $2 billion.
Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of Intel’s Data Platforms Group, said, “This acquisition advances our AI strategy, which is to provide customers with solutions to fit every performance need—from the intelligent edge to the data center.”
Habana will maintain its current management team and remain an independent business entity based in Israel.