Turkey-Israel agree to start works on pipeline project

Feasibility studies on an accompanying oil pipeline will be done in 10 months, said Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler after meeting with Israeli Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, adding that the pipeline could carry at least 40 million tons of oil annually.

 

Guler said India was also be included in the project and therefore a tripartite meeting would be held with the participation of Turkish, Israeli and Indian officials in the next 10 days. "This will be followed by a ministerial meeting," he added. Â

 

The project consists of five pipelines that would carry water, natural gas, oil, electricity and fiberoptics from Turkey's Mediterranean coast to Israel.

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Ben-Eliezer also said his country was near to an agreement with Russia to secure natural gas for the planned Medstream project. "We are very close to reaching an agreement with Russia that would supply the pipeline with natural gas," Ben-Eliezer said. Azerbaijan has said it is interested in using the pipeline to ship its oil to eastern markets, Ben-Eliezer added.

 

Following the meeting, Ben-Eliezer said that the Mediterranean Pipeline Project (Medstream) including the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, India, the People's Republic of China and Taiwan would make valuable contributions to the Middle East peace process.

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The oil pipeline is seen as an important step to reducing the time it takes to transport crude oil to eastern Asia. According to the most elaborate part of the proposal, the oil sent to Israel from Turkey would then be transferred by tankers to the Far East, including to India, China and South Korea.

 

The water transferred by the pipeline are seen as earmark for Israel as well as for the Palestinian territories and Jordan, who are all suffering from chronic water shortages.