Category: 3. Business

Partners in Israel’s Leviathan reservoir on Thursday inked a $35 billion deal to supply natural gas to Egypt, in the largest export deal in the country’s history.

Israel’s NewMed Energy, formerly Delek Drilling (part of Yitzhak Tshuva’s Delek Group), which owns a 45.3 percent stake in Leviathan, off the country’s Mediterranean coast, said the partners will sell a total of 130 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas to Egypt through 2040, or until all of the contract quantities are fulfilled.

The deal is expected to funnel hundreds of millions of shekels in revenues from gas royalties and taxes to the country’s state coffers.

“This is the most strategically important export deal to ever occur in the eastern Mediterranean, and strengthens Egypt’s position as the most significant hub in the region,” said NewMed CEO Yossi Abu. “This deal, made possible by our strong regional partnerships, will unlock further regional export opportunities, once again proving that natural gas and the wider energy industry can be an anchor for collaboration.”

Natural gas from Leviathan, one of the world’s largest deep-water gas discoveries, started to flow to the Israeli domestic market in December 2019. The partners in the Leviathan reservoir began exporting natural gas to Egypt in January 2020 after signing a deal for 60 bcm, which is expected to be supplied by the early 2030s. To date, Leviathan has supplied 23.5 bcm of gas to the Egyptian market.

The first phase of the new export deal for the sale of 20 bcm is expected to begin in 2026, which will boost annual gas supply from the Leviathan reservoir to Egypt from 4.7 bcm per year currently to 6.7 bcm.

In the second phase, starting in 2029, an additional 110 bcm of gas will be supplied following the completion of the Leviathan production expansion plan and the construction of a new transmission pipeline from Israel to Egypt. As a result, the volume of annual gas supply will increase to about 12 bcm to 13 bcm.

The deal comes as growing domestic energy needs have sparked heated discussions over natural gas exports. Earlier this year, the Finance Ministry warned that Israel is poised to face a natural gas shortage in the next 25 years as domestic energy needs are growing faster than forecast and gas export sales are robust. A shortfall would lead to higher electricity prices for consumers.

Meanwhile, NewMed stressed that “the deal should pave the way for the expansion of Leviathan and ensure the supply of natural gas to the Israeli market until 2064.”

The Energy Ministry was not immediately available for comment on the export deal.

The Leviathan reservoir contains an estimated 600 bcm of gas located about 120 kilometers west of the port city of Haifa at a water depth of 1.7 kilometers. Other partners in the gas field include US energy giant Chevron, which holds a 39.66% stake, and Ratio Oil Corp., with a 15% stake.

“Since it begun production, Leviathan has brought many benefits both domestically and internationally, and the reservoir’s expansion has been NewMed’s key priority for years,” said Abu.

A worker walking on the Leviathan natural gas platform, offshore of Israel. (Albatross)

Amid the ongoing war with the Hamas terror group in Gaza, Israel’s natural gas exports to Egypt and Jordan increased by more than 13% in 2024 year-on-year, accounting for about half of Israeli gas production. State revenue collected from gas royalties soared almost 11% to a record NIS 2.37 billion ($694 million) in 2024.

Since natural gas began being pumped from the Leviathan reservoir in 2019, Israel has collected about NIS 4.2 billion in royalties, including NIS 1.02 billion last year. Since the start of natural gas production in Israel, the state has reaped almost NIS 30 billion from royalties and taxes.

Both Israel and Egypt have emerged as gas exporters in recent years following major offshore discoveries, as Europe is determined to wean itself off dependence on Russian gas imports. Israeli gas accounts for about 15% to 20% of Egypt’s consumption, according to data from the Joint Organisations Data Initiative.

In June 2022, Israel, Egypt and the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding that will see Israel export its natural gas to the bloc for the first time. According to the agreement, Israeli gas will be supplied via Egypt’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants to the European Union.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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What the rate cut means if you have a mortgage

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• Gold price looks for a fresh trigger to break above the key resistance of $3,400.
• Fed officials turn dovish on the monetary policy outlook.
• US President Trump is expected to announce the tariff penalty on China for buying Oil from Russia.

Gold price (XAU/USD) struggles to break above $3,400.00 after testing this key level early Thursday. The precious metal hesitates to extend upside even as Federal Reserve (Fed) officials have shown support for interest rate cuts in the remainder of the year.

On Wednesday, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly and Fed Governor Lisa Cook argued in favor of reducing interest rates amid growing labor market concerns. “The economy is slowing and the Fed needs to respond to the slowing economy,” Kashkari said in an interview with CNBC. Kashkari added, “It may still be relevant in the near term to begin adjusting the policy rate, and two rate cuts this year still seem appropriate.”

The CME FedWatch tool showed that traders have almost fully priced in a 25 basis points (bps) interest rate reduction in the September policy meeting.

Theoretically, lower interest rates by the Fed bode well for non-yielding assets, such as Gold.

Meanwhile, resurfacing United States (US) President Donald Trump’s tariff fears are expected to improve the demand for safe-haven assets, such as Gold. On Wednesday, Trump stated that he could impose a penalty on China in the form of tariffs for buying Oil from Russia. The same day, Trump increased import duties on India by 25% for buying Russian Oil.

Gold technical analysis

Gold price trades close to the upper boundary of the Symmetrical Triangle formation around $3,400, which is plotted from April’s high near $3,500. The lower boundary of the yellow metal is placed from the May’s low of $3,120.85.

The precious metal holds slightly above the 20-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA), which trades near $3,350, suggesting that the near-term trend is on the upside.

The 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) wobbles inside the 40.00-60.00, which indicates indecisiveness among market participants.

Looking down, the Gold price would fall towards the round-level support of $3,200 and the May 15 low at $3,121, if it breaks below the May 29 low of $3,245

Alternatively, the Gold price will enter uncharted territory if it breaks above the psychological level of $3,500 decisively. Potential resistances would be $3,550 and $3,600.

Gold daily chart

On 7 August 1975, Nature published a paper that has had some of the greatest impacts on science and health care in modern times. The study, by biochemists Georges Köhler and César Milstein, described a method for creating lab-made copies of antibodies — called monoclonal antibodies¹. Antibodies produced by the immune system are specific to single, unique antigens — these are the molecules generated by viruses, bacteria and other foreign agents that invade the body and try to overpower its defences. Monoclonal antibodies can be produced in huge quantities and can be designed to recognize any target. They have become the workhorse for research laboratories. In the clinic, they are used to diagnose and treat a variety of conditions, including autoimmune diseases², allergy³ and cancer⁴.

At least 212 antibody drugs have benefited tens of millions of people so far, write Andrew Chan, Greg Martyn and Paul Carter, researchers at Genentech in San Francisco, California, in an article in Nature Reviews Immunology on the past, present and future of antibody treatments⁵. The global market for monoclonal antibodies, worth around US$250 billion in 2024, is projected to double in value within five years (see go.nature.com/4muxakf).

Fifty years of monoclonals: the past, present and future of antibody therapeutics

Köhler and Milstein’s paper was the culmination of a worldwide effort to understand antibodies: their origin, structure, mechanism and role in the body’s immune system. This all happened without the complex organization and funding of today’s scientific consortia: at the time, large funders, notably the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and the US National Cancer Institute, had a more hands-off role than they do now. This story shows that it is possible to establish a multibillion-dollar industry purely by letting scientists communicate their research, exchange information and share materials.

By the time Milstein arrived in the early 1960s at the MRC’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) — then the world’s leading centre for studies of DNA structures — in Cambridge, UK, scientists had made progress in understanding antibodies’ basic structure. But they didn’t know how this class of proteins could target specific antigens.

Following up on biologist Joshua Lederberg’s theory that somatic mutations — changes in DNA not inherited from parents — underlie antibody diversity⁶, Milstein and fellow biochemist Sydney Brenner proposed a mechanism for restricting these mutations to specific gene regions⁷. As interest in this idea grew, so did the need to find ways to grow antibody-producing cells in the lab. Several groups succeeded in this step, which in turn allowed Milstein and his collaborators to investigate their theory experimentally in myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cells that are crucial to the immune response. It was hard work, not least because somatic mutations occur rarely. “The difficulty was that no one knew which specific antigens the myeloma cells bound to,” explains medical historian Lara Marks, who curated an exhibition on monoclonal antibodies for the MRC on the invention’s 40th anniversary.

Milstein and Köhler solved this problem by immunizing mice with a particular antigen and taking healthy B cells from the animals’ spleens. This, they predicted, would trigger the production of an antibody specific to that antigen. The antibody-producing B cell was then fused with a mouse myeloma cell, creating a hybrid called a hybridoma. Using this technique, they were able to produce essentially limitless quantities of antibodies with known specificity.

PastCast: Monoclonal antibodies, from basic science to blockbuster drugs

Milstein’s lab received many requests for cell lines, which were dispatched to researchers all around the world, at little or no cost. This enabled other groups to replicate and build on the invention, creating the current industry. Some policymakers were concerned that the LMB and MRC were too slow to think about intellectual property. In retrospect, it’s an unfair criticism. The modern biotech industry was in its nascent phase and it would be several years before the United States (and United Kingdom) would allow universities to patent scientific knowledge from government-funded research. The many groups involved in the breakthrough were mainly looking to answer a fundamental scientific question and did so according to the research community’s practices at the time.

The colossal industry that has grown around monoclonal antibodies continues to expand, and scientists are now looking to answer new questions, such as how to deploy artificial-intelligence technologies to design antibodies with drug-like properties — a task that is more complicated than using such tools to predict protein structures.

The story of monoclonal antibodies illustrates how an industry that changed health care was born through a scientific ‘relay race’. Fifty years later, the scientific landscape has transformed, in many ways for the better. Funders and policymakers, however, should consider whether breakthrough discoveries are aided by time-limited funding and complicated management structures. But stakeholders should not lose sight of perhaps the most important aspect of the work: free exchange of knowledge and materials pays dividends.

From August 26 to 28, a Verra delegation will participate in the Latin America Climate Summit (LACS) 2025 (external) in São Paulo, Brazil. Organized by IETA, LACS 2025 will convene carbon market leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean to explore how carbon pricing can support climate solutions and a just transition in the region. The summit will connect stakeholders from governments, business, civil society, policy, and local and traditional communities, providing space for important conversations on shaping the future of the region’s carbon markets.

The following Verra staff will be in attendance:

The Verra team looks forward to connecting with stakeholders; we hope you will visit our exhibit booth and/or join us for the speaking engagements listed below. To request a meeting with a Verra staff member during LACS 2025, please email events@verra.org.

So why has the Bank of England cut rates when inflation is well above its target of 2% and seems set to remain there?

This vexed question is why the proceedings of the Bank’s nine member Monetary Policy Committee were so close and even involved an unprecedented second vote.

The bottom line is that in the medium term the Bank sees the jobs market as exerting less upward pressure on inflation, because of a fall in the number of job vacancies and an increase in the jobless rate.

But Bank governor Andrew Bailey and his team will have some explaining to do.

Inflation remains high, and the very visible food price inflation figures look set to go up over the remainder of the year.

So the ripples of inflation remain and there are risks around an expected further cut in interest rates in November.

It is notable that both deputy governor Clare Lombardelli and chief economist Huw Pill voted to hold rates, against the judgement of the governor.

Mr Bailey acknowledged to me that there was now more uncertainty about the pace of cuts, which it had previously been assumed would continue at once per quarter into next year.

The bigger question is why this series of cuts – five over the past year – has not boosted the economy more dramatically.

The Bank expects second quarter GDP growth, which will be published by the Office for National Statistics next week, to be just 0.1%.

However, thereafter it does predict that in the third quarter, economic growth will pick up to 0.3%, partly on the back of the prime minister’s trade deal with the US boosting what had been flagging exports.

Obviously, the global backdrop has weighed down on the economy.

The Bank points to the 24% drop in UK car exports to the US in May. That should now reverse.

The notable economic factor has been the very high rate of savings in the economy, remaining at pandemic double digit levels as a proportion of the economy.

Essentially, although pay has been rising faster than inflation, consumers have not felt confident enough to increase spending. This is partly an expected result of what were high interest rates.

But the general negative vibe, not helped by what was a rather downbeat drumbeat from government last year, does appear to have held consumers back.

If spending reverts to normal, and savings rates decline, then the Bank predicts a notable improvement in economic growth, eventually.

But the lingering suspicion that inflation has not quite been defeated, which will be seen in upcoming food prices, remains.

And the Bank clearly is picking up the impact of some government policies, from the rise in National Insurance for employers, and the national living wage.