Israel all set to launch oil pipeline project with its Arab neighbours
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Alaina
- . December 17, 2020
- . Update: December 19, 2020 8:02 pm
Israel after signing the normalising agreement with its Arab neighbours and ending decades of political deadlock, has now prepared the ground to launch trans-Israel pipeline project in tie-up with Arab nations. Washington under the presidency of Donald Trump pushed peace agreements between Israel and the Arab world including, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. US administration is now making efforts for building Israeli energy trade ties with Oman, Sudan, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Trans-Israel Pipeline (TIPline) aimed at establishing an energy supply web, focusing on transporting oil and other energy resources through the pipelines. The exiting pipeline covered a wide stretch ranging from the Gulf of Aqaba in southern Israel to the Mediterranean port of Ashkelon in north of the Gaza Strip. Ironically, TIPline was constructed in 1968 to transport oil to Israeli political rival, Iran, to avoid Suez Canal route. But later the Jew nation collaborated with Russia and used it to supply oil to Asian nations.
While talking extensively about the Israeli energy pipleline plan, US Energy Secretary Daniel Brouillette said on Tuesday, “There has been some good work done … on the movement of gas throughout the region between Israel and Egypt. We think there are some opportunities … for the movement of both crude oil and perhaps other products in that pipeline (TIPline).”
Discussing the possibility of transporting electricity and other reduces through the network, Brouillette said: “We do think there are some opportunities with regard to the movement of electricity.” He talked about “the enormous opportunity that we have for … the development of hydrogen and movement of hydrogen throughout the region. There seems to be a fair amount of interest in those technologies as well.”He also shared prospects of peace and trade agreements with more Arab nations in near future, but didn’t give the details. He said he was not sure of “any new administration that might come down the road”, but he expected the trend of bilateral ties with Arab world to continue.
He said, “I know Egypt has a great relationship with Israel. They’ve conducted some conversations under an organization called the EasternMed Gas Forum. We expect those types of conversations will continue.” He added that the US goal was to “produce energy and make it available to the region, but also to create economic opportunities for Egypt, for Israel, for others who wish to provide natural gas or perhaps crude oil to the others in the world.”
