LONDON: European and Israeli governments gave the go-ahead Monday for a Mediterranean pipeline to carry natural gas from Israel to Europe, with a completion target of 2025.
The planned 2,000-km (1,248-mile) pipeline aims to link gas fields off the coasts of Israel and Cyprus with Greece and possibly Italy, at a cost of up to $6.4 billion.
“This is going to be the longest and deepest sub-sea gas pipeline in the world,” said Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz.
At a joint news conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, energy ministers from the four nations — as well as the EU’s commissioner for climate action and energy, Miguel Arias Canete — pledged their commitment to the project.
A feasibility study has been completed, and the next few years will focus on “proper development activities,” with a final investment decision expected by 2020, said Elio Ruggeri, chief executive of IGI Poseidon, the project owners.
The EU is seeking to reduce its gas dependence on Russia and diversify its sources, while Israel is looking to find markets for its new gas discoveries.
“Israel has been unable to leverage its gas to create closer ties to its Arab neighbors for various reasons,” Jim Krane, an expert in Middle East energy geopolitics at Rice University’s Baker Institute, told Arab News.
“One possible customer, Egypt, recently made a major discovery of its own, and no longer needs Israeli gas. Others, like Jordan, need the gas but worry about the downsides of energy dependence on Israel,” he said.
“Israel’s next best option is to find a way to move its gas to Europe. For the Europeans, Israeli and Cypriot gas would provide a welcome diversification to supplies from Russia and North Africa.”
However, any Israeli-EU gas pipeline faces huge obstacles. “European gas demand is flat. Israeli gas will have to compete amid a worldwide glut of LNG (liquefied natural gas), which has fallen significantly in price,” Krane said.
“Finally, it’s never easy to build a pipeline across multiple maritime boundaries. Plans for long international pipelines rarely succeed.”
Altay Atli, a research associate at Sabanci University’s Istanbul Policy Center, told Arab News the timetable may be feasible, but this pipeline is not the only game in town.
“I think 2025 is a realistic target for the completion of the project, but it will take some time (as well as feasibility studies and political decisions) for the project to take off,” he said.
“Israel has other options on the table, including a pipeline project that will take its gas through Cypriot waters to Turkey, where Turkey will purchase part of the gas and the rest will be exported to the European network through Turkish pipelines,” Atli added.
“The Turkish route is shorter than the Greece-Italy route. It’s less complicated technically, and it’s easier to fill in without the need to find additional resources. In sum, it’s economically more feasible.”