In December 2018, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi issued the Presidential Decree no. 537 of 2018 (the “Decree”) approving the agreement entered into between Egypt and Cyprus on 19 September 2018 to establish a direct natural gas subsea pipeline between the two countries (the “Agreement”).
The Decree was published in the Official Gazette on 4 July 2019 after the approval of the Agreement by the House of Representative on 11 March 2019.
The purpose of the Agreement is to establish a direct subsea pipeline between the two countries to export natural gas from Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone to Egypt’s liquefaction plants located at Edku and/or Damietta.
According to the Agreement, a joint follow-up committee shall be established for the sole purpose of following-up the activities related to the project. Such committee shall consist of equal number of representatives from the gas and petroleum ministries as well as the related entities of each party.