ANKARA, February 4. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara is ready to use the gas Israel produces in the East Mediterranean in the country and supply it to Europe. He said this talking to reporters on a return flight from Kiev on Friday.
"Earlier, we already started talking about this topic [with Israel]. We use Israeli gas inside the country, but in addition, we will take part in joint work to bring it to Europe," Erdogan said as quoted by Turkey’s NTV channel. The Turkish leader said that he intends to "discuss the issue of delivering Israeli gas with Israeli President Isaac Herzog," who may visit Ankara in March.
"I hope that during the visit of Mr. Herzog these topics will be on our agenda. We will also talk about this with Prime Minister [of Israel Naftali Bennett]," he said.
The issue of transporting gas from the Eastern Mediterranean has come to the fore due to uncertainty about the feasibility of building the East Mediterranean gas pipeline (EastMed pipeline).
Speaking about the prospects of this project, Erdogan recalled that the United States had stopped supporting it.
"In my opinion, the United States withdrew from the project because they did not find what they expected there, that is, financial feasibility. If it were there, they would not have left it," he said.
"In relation to that region we are talking about the rights of the Turkish Cypriot population, which we protect," Erdogan added.
He recalled that Turkish drilling and seismic vessels operate off the coast of Cyprus, which reduces the cost of gas for the end user.
Eastern Mediterranean gas pipeline
Greece, Cyprus and Israel signed the agreement on the construction of the Eastern Mediterranean gas pipeline on January 2, 2020. It is assumed that the EastMed pipeline will make it possible to start supplying energy from the Israeli Leviathan field and the Cypriot Aphrodite field through the islands of Cyprus and Crete to the mainland of Greece, and in the future, possibly, to bring gas to Italy. The length of the gas pipeline is 1,900 km. In particular, 1,300 km will be laid under water and 600 km on land. The design capacity of the EastMed pipeline is 10 billion cubic meters of gas annually.
However, on January 8, the Greek information portal Defense-point.gr reported that the United States had notified Greece, Cyprus and Israel that they were not supporting the project "both for environmental and economic reasons."