A few days ago, Jonathan Miller, the Special Envoy for Energy at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said that “Israel is ready to do everything in its power to support European energy challenges. The European Union and national leaders are in contact with Israel about the possible supply of gas to the region.”
European Union countries consume about 30 percent of their imports of oil and its derivatives from Russia, which amount to about 6.5 million barrels per day of crude oil and diesel fuel, and Moscow is also the largest exporter of natural gas to Europe, where about 40 percent of supplies are shipped. Continent via pipelines.
EU countries remain divided over the timetable, but European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc hopes to phase out its dependence on Russian gas, oil and coal by 2027.
Repercussions of the Ukraine war
Amid Shoukry, senior foreign policy and energy security advisor at the Washington-based Gulf States Analytics Center, said that “the Russian invasion of Ukraine changed the dynamics of the global energy market, as it did the balance of power.”
In an interview with Sky News Arabia, Shoukry added, “The energy crisis has shown that the Middle East still plays a vital role in the global energy market and will continue to play an important role in the next decade.”
He continued, “Israel’s natural gas resources in line with the policy of diversifying energy sources can contribute to the energy security of Turkey and Europe, but first, financing must be provided for natural gas extraction and pipeline construction.”
He stressed the “necessity of the serious participation of Greece and Cyprus in this project, and a possible Israeli natural gas pipeline to Turkey, with the change of energy relations in the region, would solve some of the differences between Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, as well as Israel.”
He pointed out that Israel owns two huge fields, Leviathan and Tamar, and there are 623 billion cubic meters of gas in the Leviathan field, and there are 314 billion cubic meters in the Tamar gas field. So when you add the two together, it’s about 1 trillion cubic metres.
However, he noted, “Despite Europe’s efforts to find alternatives to Russian natural gas, in the short term, there is no immediate alternative to Russian gas, and at present, Algeria and Libya can increase their capabilities to export natural gas to Europe through existing pipelines.” However, the necessary infrastructure must be provided to increase exports.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Miller said that “Israel is ready to support European energy challenges, but the big question remains how this gas will reach Europe, which remains one of the challenges.”
He added that “Israel is unable to add a large capacity for LNG on its densely populated coast. I spoke with our Egyptian partners about the possibility of increasing the amount of gas coming from Egypt to sell LNG to Europe.”
He pointed out that “the European Union and national leaders are in contact with Israel about the possibility of supplying the region with gas,” noting that “the plans will be for the long term, but in the short term, these are not large numbers because we have to rely on the existing infrastructure.”
He continued, “I think it is an important time for Europe, Israel, Egypt and the partners to search for medium and long-term solutions on how to deliver gas to the European market.”
EastMed
In January 2020, Cyprus, Greece and Israel signed in the Greek capital, Athens, the EastMed pipeline agreement to supply gas to Europe.
The EastMed gas pipeline project dates back to 2013 when DEPA (Greek General Company for Natural Gas) registered this project on the EU list of “projects of common interest”, which enabled it to benefit from European funds to cover part of the work. preparatory. The cost of the project, which reaches Italy, is estimated at 6 billion euros.
The EastMed gas pipeline, with a length of 1872 km, will allow the transfer of between 9 and 11 billion cubic meters of gas annually from the offshore reserves of the Eastern Mediterranean basin off Cyprus and Israel to Greece, as well as to Italy and other countries in southeastern Europe via the Poseidon gas pipeline. and EGB.
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