Tel Aviv eyes gas pipelines to Turkey, Greece
Israel is reviewing the possibility of launching two pipeline
ventures to export gas to Turkey and Greece, Energy Minister Yuval
Steinitz said Sunday, Sputnik
reported.
In late January, Tel Aviv, Nicosia and Athens agreed to work on
joint projects to export gas from the Eastern Mediterranean’s gas
reserves discovered in the seas belonging to Israel and Cyprus to
Europe.
"If things improve with Turkey… gas could both be sold to Turkey,
and to Greece via Turkey," Steinitz told the Greek Kathimerini
newspaper.
The Israeli minister added that the discovery of strategic gas
reserves in Israel and Egypt would justify the costs of building a
major pipeline to Greece.
Ankara has been in talks with Israeli firms over a potential
pipeline to carry Israeli natural gas to Turkey for several years,
but the negotiations reached an impasse as relations between the
two countries deteriorated.
Relations between Israel and Turkey deteriorated after the Freedom
Flotilla incident in 2010, when a convoy of six ships, including
one under Turkey's flag, tried to approach the Gaza Strip with
humanitarian aid and activists on board. The flotilla was blocked
and stormed by Israeli forces, with eight Turkish citizens being
killed.
Currently, Israel’s Leviathan gas field, first drilled in 2011, is
one of the largest young gas reserves in the world, with some 3,450
trillion cubic meters of natural gas of undiscovered reserves.
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