Israel Seeks Gas Exports to Europe via Greece

Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister visited Greece on Tuesday to talk about joint exploration of natural gas from the Mediterranean Sea.

“Greece is a strategically important country due to its proximity to us in the Eastern Mediterranean and especially due to the discovery of oil and gas,” said Danny Ayalon.

“We’re going to talk about making Greece and Cyprus distribution centres for Israeli gas to Europe, which needs to diversify its sources.”

Israel has been supportive of gas exploration by Cyprus in its Exclusive Economic Zone which has brought challenges by Turkey.

Israel is predicting at least $150 billion in gas revenues from Tamar and Leviathan gas field which are scheduled to begin pumping in 2013 and 2017 respectively.

Related Reading: Levant Basin Dispute Continues to Simmer