The EU is asking Israel to supply natural gas as part of tackling the crisis in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, at a conference held this week in Paris and with the participation of Energy Minister Karin Elharar it was decided to establish a joint team
During a meeting between Energy Minister Karin Elharar and her EU counterpart, Kadri Simson, the latter asked Israel to help supply gas to Europe. The two agreed on the establishment of a working group composed of representatives of the union and representatives of the Israeli Ministry of Energy to examine the range of issues and conditions required to carry out this unprecedented move, the flow of Israeli gas to Europe, as first revealed on the N12.
“In the last year, the continent of Europe has been facing an unprecedented energy crisis,” said Minister Elharar. “The crisis has only intensified since the beginning of the fighting in Ukraine. In talks I had with my counterparts and especially with the EU Commissioner for Energy, they raised concerns about energy shortages, so we decided to set up a joint team to examine the start of Israeli natural gas exports to Europe.”
A source close to the details told Channel 12 “We talked about two types of agreements under which gas can already be exported. But we want to know that we have a reason to develop infrastructure, for which we need certainty that we want our gas in quantity a decade from now. “Another decade. Gas is much less polluting than coal. It is in the global interest.”
This comes after a period in which gas prices in Europe are rising, following the sanctions the EU has decided to impose on Russia. Russia supplies Europe 40% of its gas, and 30% of oil, and yet, earlier this month, alongside sanctions on the Russian energy economy announced by the US and Britain, Europe announced a sanction of its own: abolishing two-thirds of Russian gas imports by The end of the year, and the end of imports of energy sources from Russia altogether by 2030. In the first week of the war, Germany halted the huge gas flow project through the Nord-Stream 2 pipeline. It was to flow very large quantities of gas from Russia.
So the Russians themselves pointed to a degree of arrogance that this could be very problematic for the European economy. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said earlier this month that a barrel price could reach $ 300 in such a case, adding: “The postponement of Russian oil will have catastrophic consequences for the global market.”
As for the Israeli gas, the assumption is that it is ultimately a significant amount at all, and that the Europeans are interested in long-term cooperation, not one that will end at the end of about two years with the calm of the winds. Although this is a preliminary stage, and even the memorandum of understanding is not yet on the table, it is likely that things will mature to the point of institutionalizing the relationship later on. “Ensuring Israel’s routine and emergency energy supply is my most important goal as Minister of Energy, which I will not compromise on,” clarifies Minister Elharar. “In the long run, strengthening ties with the countries of the world through the signing of agreements is essential to achieving this goal.”
One of its issues that will be required in the joint working group is the issue of transmission. Today, as is well known, there is no pipeline that can transport gas from Israel to Europe. This is an infrastructure project that may take years. However, given that Europe now needs Israeli gas, one of the options being considered is to expand gas exports to Egypt, drain them and transfer them to Europe in containers, as is currently the case on a smaller scale.
Along with the hopes that hang on Israeli gas, many still believe that the disengagement from Russian gas will later lead to a more massive reliance of Europe, and of the entire world, on green energy. Yaki Neumann, CEO of Doral Energy, claims that there has been a process of de-globalization around the world for years, but “recently the trend has begun to accelerate. This has already happened with the eruption of the corona, “Today it is a priority to establish independence in the energetic context.” It happens that countries are once again recalling how the energy market can become a kind of weapon in a geopolitical war, and at the same time with the preference of ecological currents in society, understand that a distributed electricity sector of solar panels for example, may eliminate this dependence optimally.