Maiman: EMG can sell Israel as much gas as BG can, for less money
Haaretz
May 27, 2007
By Avi Bar-Eli
Yossi Maiman avers that the Israeli-Egyptian natural gas consortium EMG can sell Israel gas for less than British Gas can.
Maiman owns an interest in Merhav, which owns an interest in EMG. He argues that if the state decided to buy and market natural gas itself, it must hold a tender and allow potential suppliers to compete over price.
"I would be happy to bid in a tender," Maiman wrote in a letter to the director-general of the Finance Ministry, Yarom Ariav.
Maiman claimed in his letter that EMG, which sells Egyptian gas, could provide Israel with the same amount proposed to originate from a Palestinian field being developed by BG off the shore of Gaza - "for significantly less money" than the price BG is reported to demand.
He adds that in December 2006, he met with the former director-general of the treasury, Joseph Bachar, and proposed that negotiations commence immediately on buying more gas from Egypt. However, his proposal was never answered.
The Finance Ministry commented that Maiman's letter only arrived at the end of last week, and will be handled.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/863659.html