Energy Minister Yitzhak Modai told the Knesset Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense yesterday that Egypt refused to grant Israel any special oil rights in Sinai and the Gulf of Suez during the recent Blair House talks. Israel based its request for the privileges on the wells it had discovered and begun to exploit in the area.
Modai noted that Israel would continue to negotiate for a firm commitment on Egypt’s part to sell 1.5 million tons of Sinai oil to Israel annually. Egypt, however, refuses to commit itself at present, and contends that it is only willing to sall oil to Israel on a normal commercial basis with no specification as to quantity.
The Energy Minister added that certain difficulties as to Israel’s future sources of oil exist, since Norway, for example, refused Israel’s request to purchase oil on a commercial basis. He said, however, that the American view is that Israel can pump unlimited oil from the Sinai wells before withdrawing from the region.
The subject provoked an odd debate, of sorts, with Likud Knesseters taking the government to task over the oil issue and Alignment Knesset members supporting the government’s move. Yigal Hurvitz and Moshe Shamir, both of Likud, attacked the government for “giving away the crucial asset of the Sinai oilfields,” while Alignment Knesseter Yitzhak Rabin praised the Israeli concession as “a reasonable and logical step.”
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