Yachimovich: Egyptian gas should mean lower prices for Israelis

Senior opposition lawmaker Shelly Yachimovich says that now that Egypt has found a massive natural gas field off its coast, the price Israelis pay for their gas should be lower.

“If the finding is real,” she says in a statement, “there will be regional competition and prices will plummet.”

Yachimovich is a strident opponent of the controversial deal shaping up between the Israeli government and a consortium of gas companies that regulators have labeled a de facto monopoly.

That deal has yet to be passed by the government, and cabinet ministers were arguing Sunday that the Egyptian find should serve as incentive to pass the agreement sooner rather than later.

But Yachimovich argues that the Egyptian gas field — billed as the largest in the Mediterranean — should prompt the government to reopen its agreement with the gas companies and eke out more favorable terms.