Israel will begin exporting natural gas to Jordan and Egypt early in the new year, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz as saying on Monday.

The paper quoted Steinitz as saying that “before the end of the year, we will start supplying the domestic market, and in the weeks right after that we will export to Egypt and Jordan”.

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“Despite the objections of some environmentalists, nothing prevents Israel from exporting gas to Europe,” he said.

In February 2018 Israel signed a $15 billion agreement with Egypt to supply it with natural gas for ten years. In September 2016, Tel Aviv signed another agreement worth $10 billion with Jordan to provide it with about 45 billion cubic meters of gas for 15 years.