Israel Inaugurates Second Line
Israel's gas transmission system operator Natgaz has inaugurated the 100-km Eastern Gas Pipeline, the country's second longest. It runs from from the port of Ashkelon to Eliakim and joins the 'marine line', a pipeline along the Mediterranean coast, which was the only pipeline carrying gas from Ashdod to the Haifa Bay area in the north of the country.
The new pipeline will serve as a two-way main artery for the transportation of natural gas from Ramla to Elyakim (the Hagit power plant) and will enable the connection of new customers to the pipeline and in the future the flow of gas from the giant Leviathan reservoir to the local market.
The line cost NIS 750mn ($215mn) and it can carry 14bn m³/yr – well beyond the expected needs of the Israeli economy in the coming years. It follows existing transport routes, saving time and money on land purchases and wayleaves.
The inauguration ceremony was held in the presence of energy minister Yuval Steinitz. "I am pleased to inaugurate this significant project, the National Carrier of the Gas Sector," Steinitz said alluding to the National Water Carrier, the most famous infrastructure project in Israel's 69 year history, in which drinking water were transported from the Sea of Galilee at the north to the to the heart of the country.
The pipeline will enable more consumers to use gas, meaning lower fuel costs and cleaner air. "We are in the midst of the natural gas revolution in Israel, and we will all benefit from it," he said.
"With the completion of the project, the state has accomplished a huge step in preparing for receiving the gas from the Leviathan reservoir and increasing the redundancy and survivability of the national transmission system," said Natgaz CEO Shmuel Turjeman. "The next challenge for the company is planning and establishing the subsea transmission system that will enable the connection of additional gas suppliers [off shore Israel] to the national system. "
Slow pace
However, this week's debate in the parliament's Economics Committee criticised the slow pace of connection of factories to the natural gas infrastructure. One of the MPs said that even though the energy minister claimed that this year 49 plants would be connected to the natural gas grid, only seven have been connected so far. And even then it is not clear if gas is flowing through the pipelines.
"We take responsibility for connecting consumers to gas, and for everything that happened before us, but the question now is: how quickly we will be able to do our job – bring gas to every plant, to any station, to any consumer who wants it," the energy ministry's director-general Shaul Meridor told MPs.
Ya'acov Zalel