The Palestinian Investment Fund is nearing the completion of an agreement with the Egyptian Public Gas Company (EGAS) for the development of the "Gaza Marine" gas field.

The two sides will ink a quality agreement in the fourth quarter of 2022 that will determine the sharing of partners' quotas as well as the terms of gas marketing, as per Anadolu Agency.

As per the agreement, the Palestinian Investment Fund and the Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) will each have two equal shares (27.5%) of the field, with the operating company receiving the remaining share (45%).

It is worth noting that the Palestinian Fund, CCC, and EGAS signed a cooperation memorandum in February 2021 with the goal of developing the Gaza Marine gas field and the necessary infrastructure to supply gas enough to secure Palestine’s needs.

Following the signing of the agreement, EGAS will take the necessary steps to develop the gas field so that it can be operational within 30 months.

Gaza Marine field was discovered in the southern Mediterranean in the late 1990s. However, the gas has not been extracted from this field until today due to Israeli occupation.

The field, located 36 kilometers west of Gaza in the southern Mediterranean, was reportedly developed in 2000 by the UK company British Gas before being handed over to the Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell which dropped the project in 2018.

This field's reserves are estimated to be 32 billion cubic meters of natural gas, with a production capacity of 1.5 billion cubic meters over a 20-year period.