Israel’s largest natural gas fields, Leviathan and Tamar are estimated to 800 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves. In 2016, Israel and Turkey developed a scenario to use Turkey as an energy hub to export the gas to Europe. The project expects to flow 10 billion cubic meters of Israeli gas per year from 2019.
Eitan Naeh, Israel’s Ambassador to Turkey since December 2016 declared: “the US$ 4 billion trade volume with Turkey could be doubled through energy projects. (…) We have this potential. We can keep this goal in the framework of our relationship based on stability and trust. We want to have more investments in Israel. Despite some difficulties, we rely on the Turkish economy”.
S.E. Naeh, indicated that the negotiations for energy cooperation were continuing between Israel and Turkey. The resolution of the Cypriot problem would accelerate the natural gas projects and also create a win-win situation.
According to Israeli diplomatic sources, the biggest step in the natural gas project was the meeting between Israeli Energy Minister Steinitz and his Turkish counterpart Berat Albayrak in Istanbul, during the World Energy Congress in October 2016.
In November, a delegation from the Ministry of Energy of Israel came to Istanbul.
In January 2017, a delegation from the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources went to Israel to discuss the details of the cooperation.
An agreement could be signed at the end of this summer, and the natural gas pipeline will be erected from the Leviathan area to Turkey. The construction of this line is foreseen to be completed in a year and a half. Israeli Energy Minister Steinitz also has been explained to the Israeli press after the meeting with Albayrak that an energy deal could be signed with Turkey at the end of the summer 2017.
