Turkey hints at carrots
One byproduct of Israel’s apology to Turkey for operational errors that may have caused loss of life on the Mavi Marmara could be cooperation in the energy field, Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Tuesday.
“We should acknowledge that it is a political issue,” Yildiz was quoted by Today’s Zaman as saying in reference to the apology at an energy conference in Ankara, amid a slight decrease in public Turkish gloating over the issue.
“The reason for the apology is not [common] energy projects, but the result of it can be energy projects,” he said.
“Within the process of normalization, after Israel has fulfilled its responsibilities towards our side, the project of transporting Israeli gas via Turkey could come onto the agenda.”
While Israel has not yet decided whether or how much of its natural gas reserves that just began flowing on Saturday should be exported – or whether the preferred market is to Europe via Cyprus or Turkey, or the Far East via Eilat – there was considerable talk during the height of the Turkish-Israeli diplomatic tension of an Israel-Cyprus- Greece energy corridor that would bypass Turkey.
But now, with Cyprus’s financial woes coupled with the beginning of a Jerusalem- Ankara rapprochement, the idea of a pipeline to Turkey is once again gaining currency.Do we really want our gas exports to be dependent upon an 'ally' as unreliable as Turkey?
Labels: natural gas, oil and gas exploration, Tamar natural gas well, Turkish obsession with Israel
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:45 PM
3 Comments:
There would definitely be political advantages both for Cyprus and Israel to "leak" discussions about a common pipe-line from the cypriot and israeli gas-fields to Eilat for further transport to the Far East.
;-)
No it is not. Turkey is looking for control. If they ever got it no doubt the same thing would happen as used to with Egyptian gas - near daily bombings the government is mysteriously unable to stop.
Israel is thinking of turning over valve control of your gas sales to TURKEY! Wow. Good luck with that. What are the regs for running a pipe along the floor of the sea to Italy or something?
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