Turkey and Israel are on the verge of signing an energy deal, allowing the latter to export its natural gas, Israeli Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources, Yuval Steinitz, said, according to Globes.
The deal would be a probe of their better relation after the crisis in 2010 after ten Turkish protesters were killed in an attempt to land boats in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip.
Turkey aims at expanding its natural gas resources to cut down its current dependency on Russian natural gas. Turkey’s annual gas imports stands at 50b m3 with Russia forming 55% share, Natural Gas Europe reported.
Ankara is planning to consume half of Leviathan gas supplies from 2020, via a proposed pipeline to Turkey. Also, the Israeli gas can be shipped to Europe from Turkey in the second phase.
It was also reported by Natural Gas Europe earlier this month that the Turkish conglomerate Zorlu Holding signaled its plans to increase energy investments in Israel via joint ventures. “We have strong connections in Israel. The shipping of Israeli gas to Turkey is ‘big business'”, Zorlu CEO, Omer Yungul, stated.
