By Vassilis Kostoulas
[email protected]
Israeli energy minister Yuval Steinitz told reporters in Athens this week that recent seismic research shows that quantities of natural gas in Israel’s offshore economic zone have not been discovered.
Steinitz, who also holds the national infrastructure and water resources portfolio in the current Israeli government, said if an estimate of 10,000 bcm is confirmed, then the eastern Mediterranean natgas fields can fill the gap, in terms of European markets, of lessening production from North Atlantic reserves.
He made the comments after a meeting in Athens with his Greek and Cypriot counterparts, Panos Skourletis and Georgios Lakkotrypis, respectively.
The Israeli minister again cited four main routes that the Mideast country is considering in exporting its natural gas, emphasizing that all the options are open.
As previously reported, Israel has long considered a first route towards Egypt, eyeing the prospect of that country’s massive domestic market. A second phase would ostensibly transport natural gas to Europe, via Egypt, with liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers, a prospect that, nevertheless, means the construction and operation of costly facilities in the neighboring country.
Conversely, a much less ambitious option is a first pipeline to neighboring Jordan, where Tel-Aviv has already signed contracts totaling 10 billion USD for future supplies.
In citing a direct link with major European markets, the Israeli side has still not ruled out an underwater pipeline heading to Turkey – and the connection with that country’s burgeoning grid to Europe – or even a direct pipeline linking the Israeli fields to Cyprus, then to Crete and from there to the Greek mainland and the rest of Europe.
In touching on the last option, which experts agree would be a more expensive and technically challenging option, Steinitz said Israel considers this route as “very significant and long-term”, especially if the greater deposits of natural gas actually materialize.
A new trilateral meeting at the experts' level will take place in a month, he added, with the main focus being on the feasibility of just such an eastern Med-Greece-Cyprus pipeline.
Asked by “N” if the current uncertainty surrounding the Greek economy affected Israel’s decisions on the energy sector, Steinitz said “absolutely not”, adding that his government was striving for close cooperation with Greece “in good times and in bad”.
Finally, he said the Cyprus issue was not closely linked with the issues dealing with natural gas exploitation in the eastern Mediterranean.
