The European Investment Bank seeks to take a leading role in financing a natural gas line to be built from Egypt to Israel and Turkey by Israeli-Egyptian company East Mediterranean Gas (EMG), Haaretz reported Sunday.
EMG is owned in part by Yosef Maiman's firm Merhav, in part by Egyptian businessman Hussein Salam, with Egyptian petroleum company EGPC and foreign oil companies controlling the rest of the firm. The cost of constructing the pipeline to Haifa is estimated to be between $200 million to $250 million, the Israeli paper added.
According to the daily, the Israeli-American gas exploration firm, Yam Thetis, British Gas and EMG have been negotiating for the past several months with the Israel Electric Corporation to provide 2.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the electric company and another 1.5 billion cubic meters to industry.The European Investment Bank was created in 1958 as an autonomous body set up to finance capital investment furthering European integration by promoting EU economic policies, according to the organization’s website – (Several Sources)
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