By NNN-KUNA,
Ankara : Officials from Turkey, Israel and India met here to discuss erecting a multi-purpose multi-billion euro pipeline passing through the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
The meeting on Saturday, the first in a series of many others, grouped Turkey’s Selahattin Cimen, director general of Israel’s infrastructure ministry Hezi Kugler and manager of India’s state-run oil company B.M. Bansal.
Kugler, speaking to reporters after the meeting, said the project aimed at building a multi-purpose undersea pipeline linking, in its first phase, Turkey with Israel to transfer oil, natural gas, fresh water, electricity cables and fibre optics cables.
The Indian side, he said, showed interest in this project specially with regards to the imports of crude oil instead of shipping it by tankers.
Initial studies estimated the cost at eight billion euros, said Kugler. Practical studies should begin by end of this year.
Kugler said establishment of the pipeline might begin by end of next year of in 2010.
Israel believes this project was “an economic and strategic option,” which would secure 90 percent of the Jewish state’s crude oil needs, as well as reduce the cost of shipping by oil tankers, he said.