The US government’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation has approved as part of its 2019 budget $430mn in political risk insurance for Noble Energy’s plan to reverse the flow of the offshore East Mediterranean Gas pipeline linking Arish in Egypt with Ashkelon in Israel. Noble hopes to use the route to send gas from its 22tcf Leviathan field, slated for late-2019 start-up to Egypt with a view to onward export as LNG (MEES, 23 November). The cash will “support the restoration, operation, and maintenance of a natural gas pipeline in Egypt and the supply of natural gas through the pipeline from Israel. The project is expected to supply up to ten percent of Egypt’s domestic natural gas demand,” OPIC says.