Israel’s energy storage and transport firm, the Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Company (EAPC), has initiated a plan to transport crude oil from Russia and Central Asia to Asian markets. It will do so via a 254-kilometre pipeline running from the Mediterranean port of Ashkelon to Eilat harbor on the Red Sea, reported the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES).
Expected to go on-stream by mid-2003, the Israeli initiative is part of larger oil traffic design, undertaken in cooperation with strategic ally Turkey. The scheme aims to both diversify Israel's sources of energy and develop a viable alternative to the traditional Middle Eastern oil export routes, feeding world markets.
EAPC’s plan involves reversing the pipeline’s current northward flow, carrying oil from Egypt’s Abu Rodeis oil fields in the Sinai desert to Israel's large petrochemical plants in Haifa and Ashdod. Three booster-stations currently pump the crude through the 42''-diamater pipeline, with a maximum capacity of 60 million tons per annum.
Founded in 1968, EAPC’s pipeline was originally built to provide Iran, under the rule of the Shah, with a land bridge for oil transit from the Arabian Gulf, through the Red Sea and onto Mediterranean ports in Europe, replacing the closed Suez Canal. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
