TMCnet News
Turkey, Israel plan undersea oil pipeline(UPI Top Stories Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Israel and Turkey plan four underwater pipelines to transport Russian oil and natural gas, with lines to Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon. The joint Turkish-Israeli development plan holds the promise of accelerating economic growth in the Middle East, The Washington Times reported. A $50 million feasibility study was financed by the Luxembourg-based European Investment Bank, say Turkish and Israeli officials. Turkey gets most of its natural gas from Russia, said Gabriel Levy, a senior official at the Israeli Ministry of Infrastructure. Israel would be a major beneficiary of a pipeline network, Levy said. He predicted that by 2010, 40 percent of Israel's energy needs will be filled by imported natural gas. The Turkish Embassy's deputy chief of mission, Mehmet Kemal Bozay, stressed the ecological advantages of using pipelines rather than tankers to transfer crude oil from country to country. We don't want any more tankers sailing through the Bosphorus (Strait), Bozay said. |