During 2003, the Natural Gas Law was amended in such a manner as to enable a government company to hold a natural gas transmission license. Following the amendment of the Law and after the socio-economic cabinet reached a decision (decision se/22 dated 16 July 2003), the Israel Natural Gas Lines company (INGL) was established on 23rd July 2002, for the purpose to establish the natural gas transmission system in Israel. The objective of INGL is to construct the transmission system and to link up large consumers as well as distribution networks to the system. The company, that is fully owned (100%) by the government of Israel, received in August 2004 a 30-year license for the construction and operation of the natural gas transmission system.

The company transports gas to all high pressure gas consumers (above 16 bar to 80 bar, with all the pipelines currently working at between 70 – 80 bar) and to low pressure consumers who consume more than 2000 m3/hour and less than 0.012 billion cubic meters per year.

The company may not engage in the sale or marketing of any natural gas (except for its operational needs). The ownership of the gas that is transmitted in the system belongs to the consumers of the transmission licensees’ services The transmission licensee links up consumers via PRMS stations to link up consumers based on a tariff to be paid by said consumers as set by the natural gas authority..The PRMS stations are to be funded separately by the consumers via the connection fee. Most of the consumers of the transmission system are large producers and consumers of energy in the market such as IEC’s power stations or the power stations of other entities, large industrial corporations such as Israel Chemicals, Hadera Paper Mills, Agan, the Oil Refineries, water desalination plants and distribution network licensees. The number of consumers to be linked directly to the INGL transmission system is not expected to be greater than 50.

On 12 September 2006, the government amended the law once again to ensure that the transmission system would be owned by the state and that the transmission tariff would be determined by the Natural Gas Council.

The offshore section (90 km and 30 inches) between Ashdod and Tel Aviv/ Hadera/ Dor was constructed with the financing and at the responsibility of Israel Electric and reverted to INGL during the first half of 2007. The connection to the Hagit power station was also under the responsibility of Israel Electric and was linked up in February 2009. The section from Kiryat Gat southwards to Sdom (135 km and 18-24 inches) was completed in August 2009 starting with a three week commission period, at a cost of 400 million shekels, thus a long delay from the original timetable of mid 2007. This is the largest section, which at the end of 2009 started supplying gas to the Dead Sea Works, to IEC’s Ramat Hovav power station, to the industrial areas of Ramat Hovav and Mishor Rotem. The northern section, from Hagit power station / Tel Kashish/ Haifa/ Alon Tavor was due to be completed by 2009 although to date not all the rights of ways have been obtained for this section mainly due to complaints by the Druze community. In Nov 2007 INGL signed up Gasunie and Solel Boneh for the construction of the northern onshore pipeline. This section is 68 km in length running from Afula, through Yokneam and up until the Haifa Bay at a cost of about 180 million shekels. At the end of July 2007 the offshore section to Hadera was opened (5 km on land and 5 inch line). In October 2007 INGL received the operatorship of the offshore pipeline from IEC from Ashdod to Dor. Gas started to flow in May 2007 in the first section of the onshore transmission line, namely from Ashdod to Ashkelon (95 km line). This section of the pipeline was constructed by the Israeli company Solel Boneh together with the Dutch company Gasunie at a cost of 180 million shekels. The pipeline is 24 inches and works at 70 bar pressure.

In November 2009 INGL published a request for proposals for companies to carry out the detailed planning of the Jerusalem section of the high pressure transmission system and the Nilit section with the option of ordering additional planning services of limited scope with proposals to be submitted by 21.1.2010. The tender will be based on two phases with the first phase being quality and then price. On 7th December 2009, Israel Chemicals was connected to the southern branch of the INGL transmission system with gas expected to flow within a few months. The southern pipeline is the longest section with 135 km.

Between 2003-2008 INGL, invested 1.7 billion shekels in the transmission system. INGL’s income in 2009 is approximately 250 million shekels per year.

According to its 2008 Financial Reports, INGL lost 1.6 million shekels, compared to a net income of 468 thousand shekels in 2007. The company’s capital equity is worth 447 million shekels in 2008 compared to 362 million shekels in 2007.

April 6 2011 – Northern section to Haifa Oil Refineries was approved and opened