Israel’s Delek Drilling said it has completed testing of a subsea natural gas pipeline to Egypt, but commercial sales by June 30 did not occur as originally projected, Kallanish Energy understands.

Delek and its partner, the U.S.’s Noble Energy, signed a deal early in 2018 to export $15 billion in natural gas from Israeli offshore gas fields Tamar and Leviathan to an Egyptian customer.

Delek Drilling deputy CEO Yossi Gvura told Reuters in early June the company hoped to start selling natural gas to Egypt by the end of June, but the company said olast week exports had yet to begin.

Due to the forecast demand for gas in Israel over the summer, the company expects commercial sales to Egypt to begin only when the Leviathan field comes online by the end of 2019, Reuters reported.

Delek and Noble have agreed to buy into the EMG gas pipeline between Ashkelon in Israel and El-Arish in Egypt to transport the gas supplies. Now that the technical examination of the pipeline is complete, Delek expects to close the EMG deal by Aug. 31.

This post appeared first on Kallanish Energy News.