Egypt accuses Israel of stealing nearly half a trillion dollars of oil

The Egyptian Minister of Petroleum, Osama Kamal, is accusing Israel of stealing Egyptian oil from the Sinai between 1967 and 1977.

How much was this oil worth? The minister claims it was worth $480 billion.

Crude oil prices are roughly $100/barrel today. This means that this well-informed minister is claiming that Israel "stole" some 4.8 billion barrels of oil in that period.

However, Egypt's total proven oil reserves is about 2.9 billion barrels of oil. The entire Sinai contains at best only 20% of Egypt's total oil reserves, which means that the total amount of oil in the Sinai is one tenth of the amount the minister is claiming Israel stole.

Israel, of course, did not pump anything close to the half billion barrels in that short time. Just as obviously, the topic of the Sinai's oil was one of the agreements made in the context of Camp David.

For all we know, Kamal is including the oil Egypt sold Israel since Camp David. Even so, the numbers are absurd.

But who cares about being truthful when the target is Israel?

Danny Ayalon also ridiculed the claim.