Israel has responded to Egyptian efforts to allow the Palestinian Authority to produce natural gas off the coast of Gaza, the Al-Monitor website reported on Sunday, a report confirmed by a PL executive committee member.
Egypt has been holding secret bilateral talks for several months after years of Israeli objections to producing natural gas off the coast of Gaza for security reasons.
The field in question, located about 19 miles west of the Gaza coast, was discovered in 2000 by British Gas (now BG Group) and contains more than 1,000 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The cost of its development is estimated at $1.2 billion.