EC: Leviathan gas ranks high

Today high-level contacts between Israel and European countries on laying a gas pipeline from the Leviathan natural gas reservoir are about to take place. Reportedly the Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources director general Shaul Meridor will travel to Brussels  on Monday 23/01 to meet his counterparts from Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and the European Commission officials. The meeting is arranged to prepare for a summit between the four countries’ energy ministers next month in Israel.

However the issue of its economic viability of the Leviathan has been debated for some time without any definite outcome. Gas experts express doubts about the project’s benefits: transporting gas over such distances would increase the price by $3-4 per heat unit. The same time such a projet fits into the energy diversificaiton policy of the EU, aiming at independence, or at least lesser dependence  from Russian gas imports.