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BAKU, June 8 (Reuters) - Israel wants pipelines carrying oil and gas from Azerbaijan to Turkey to be extended onto its own territory, Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said on Thursday.
Israel aims to hook up to Azeri oil, gas pipelinesBAKU, June 8 (Reuters) - Israel wants pipelines carrying oil and gas from Azerbaijan to Turkey to be extended onto its own territory, Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said on Thursday. Azeri oil and gas exports are due to flow to Turkey via the Baku-Ceyhan and Baku-Erzurum pipelines respectively, but Ben-Eliezer said Israel wanted both extended, to feed Israel's energy-poor economy and allow Azeri gas a route to Asia. "We and the Azeris are interested in transporting Azeri oil from Ceyhan through the Israeli Ashkelon-Eilat pipeline, and from there to big markets like India and China," he told a news conference in Baku. He said Israel's 254 km (158 mile) Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline running between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea was "the cheapest and shortest route" between the two bodies of water. The $4 billion Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, a project led by Britain's BP Plc , is scheduled to be officially launched in July after repeated delays, and will eventually export more than 1 million barrels of oil per day from the Caspian. Ben-Eliezer said Azerbaijan already supplied 2 million tonnes of oil a year (40,000 barrels per day) to Israel but he wanted it to meet much more of the nation's demand of 12 million tonnes a year. To meet its gas needs, Israel wanted Azerbaijan to offer a similar deal to one already signed with Egypt, he said, under which it will pay $2.5 billion to buy 1.7 billion cubic metres of gas over 15 years, with an option for a further five years. "Our government wants to interest Azerbaijan and Turkey in extending the gas pipeline from Erzurum as far as Ceyhan and we will buy as much gas as Azerbaijan can offer us," he said. "I have discussed this with Turkey's prime minister and our discussions will continue." Later this year the Baku-Erzurum pipeline is due to start pumping about 400-500 million cubic metres of gas annually from the Caspian Shakh-Deniz field. Azerbaijan has said it saw good prospects for its gas to be shipped to southern Europe via Turkey to compete with Russian supplies amid increased European concerns about heavy energy reliance on Moscow.
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