ANKARA
By Selen Tonkus
Israeli natural gas is high on the agenda after the country’s foreign minister declared an intention to sell to eastern Europe during an official visit to Lithuania last week.
Although Avigdor Lieberman pointed to Greece as a transit country to carry its gas to Europe, Turkish experts insist that Ankara is the only feasible route.
The Leviathan field off the coast of Israel, discovered four years ago, is estimated to hold nearly 600 billion cubic meters of gas.
Though Israel cannot start extracting it for another three or four years, speaking in Vilnius on September 11 Lieberman said that the state may sell to Eastern Europe via a Cyprus-Greece pipeline – an as-yet unrealized $30-40 billion project.
Oded Eran, an Israeli security expert for the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, pointed to Egypt as an alternative, telling the Anadolu Agency that it is the less-complicated option given existing problems between southern Cyprus and Ankara.
Other problems are relations between Turkey and Israel and the fact that gas has to cross the Syrian economic zone.
However, Tugce Varol Sevim, associate professor of International Relations at Istanbul's Uskudar University, said Egypt's liquefied natural gas terminals could only carry a limited portion of gas, and the bulk of the resource to be exported needs a pipeline.
Prior to Israel's ‘Operation Protective Edge’ in Gaza, the country’s government saw a pipeline over Turkey as the only way for their gas transit, Sevim said, adding: "However, the Turkish government's sensitivity towards the Gaza issue caused a deadlock."
She added that, within a period of six months, Israeli-Turkish energy relations may normalize since Israel is also aware that the Greek alternative for a pipeline will be too costly and less secure as it would have to reach 675 kilometers from Israel to Greece under the sea.
Israel wants to take advantage of Europe's desperate search for alternative gas now, says Professor Mesut Hakki Casin of the Istanbul-based Hazar Strategy Institute.
Though gas extraction won't be realized before 2017, gas is not like oil which can easily stored, he says, adding: "That is why Israel rushes to find customers."
Once you extract it, you will prefer to enjoy the shortest, least costly way to transport it – which is Turkey – he added.
However, the future of such a development remains uncertain. Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on September 9 that Turkey will not work with Israel on energy projects until the situation in the Gaza Strip has been resolved.
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