Oil from the rich Alma oil field on the Gulf of Suez, which Israel discovered and developed, may not go to Israel as promised after the area is returned to Egypt in November if Israel is not the highest bidder for the petroleum.
This possibility emerged from statements by Egyptian Fuel Minister Ahmed Ezzadin Hilal yester- day to Israeli reporters accompanying Israeli Energy Minister Yitzhak Modai on a visit to Cairo to seek assurances on the continued flow of Alma oil to Israel. Oil from the Alma fields now provides 25 percent of Israel’s needs.
Modai was told that Israel will not get oil from the Alma oilfields immediately after transferring them to Egypt as originally promised but would have to wait another nine months until the normalization of relations between the two countries goes into effect in accordance with the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement. In addition, Hilal said that each January, Egypt will put up international bids on the oil from Alma. If Israel is the highest bidder it will get the oil, otherwise some other country will get it, Hilal said.
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