European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi are expected in Jerusalem on Monday for talks with Israeli officials trying to export some of their new gas profits amid the war in Ukraine.
Ms von der Leyen will meet with the head of Israeli diplomacy, Yaïr Lapid, on Monday afternoon and on Tuesday with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett after a weekend in Ukraine, the European Commission indicated that the talks would focus on “energy”. Cooperation”.
She will also meet Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, at a time when the Palestinian Authority expects the European Union to pay millions of euros in aid to help it contain its budget deficit.
On his first official visit to the Middle East since taking office as Italian Prime Minister in 2021, Mario Draghi will meet with President Isaac Herzog and Mr Lapid on Monday in Jerusalem at the end of the day, then on Tuesday with Mr Bennett, to meet before the Meeting in Ramallah, Occupied West Bank with Mr. Shtayyeh.
This visit by the Italian prime minister should also focus on the war in Ukraine and cooperation in the field of energy, the Italian press stressed.
Israel is working hard to export some of its offshore gas resources to Europe, which has been trying to replace Russian fossil fuel purchases since invading Ukraine and sanctioning Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Gas pipeline and gas war
Ursula von der Leyen recently proposed ending Europe’s dependence on Russian hydrocarbons by 2027.
The crisis in Ukraine is making “Europe a new market, especially for Israel,” which has never considered the Old Continent “as a main market” for its gas exports, said Israeli Energy Minister Karine Elharrar recently.
Israel has recently joined the ranks of gas producing and exporting countries after several gas deposits were discovered off its coast in the Mediterranean Sea in the early 2010s, with reserves estimated at around 1 trillion BCM (billion cubic meters).
But the Jewish state faces two major problems: the lack of a gas pipeline to connect its Mediterranean oil platforms to markets in southern Europe, and a dispute with neighboring Lebanon over the demarcation of part of its exclusive jurisdiction.
When it comes to exporting, Israelis have three main options: ship their natural gas to Egypt, a neighboring country already connected to the Jewish state by a pipeline, to liquefy it and ship it to Europe; Build a gas pipeline to Turkey connecting to the old continent or build a new hydrocarbon route straight to southern Europe.
This third option already has a name, the EastMed project, based on an agreement with Cyprus and Greece to build a 1,800 km subsea gas pipeline.
But this project, valued at more than $6 billion, is expensive and could take some time to materialize. The Israelis would also like to see Italy join.
Disputed Territory
The discovery of vast gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean in recent years has whetted the appetites of neighboring countries and fueled border disputes.
Lebanon and Israel, still officially at war, began unprecedented negotiations in October 2020 under Washington’s aegis to demarcate their maritime border to remove obstacles to hydrocarbon prospecting.
Talks were suspended in May 2021 after disputes over the surface of the disputed area, including the Karish area. Tensions flared again last week when a ship chartered by exploration company Energean Plc on behalf of the Jewish state arrived at the Karish gas field.
Lebanon has accused Israel of drilling in a disputed area. The Jewish state assured that the gas field is located slightly south of the disputed area but well outside of it, which is also suggested by an analysis of satellite imagery conducted by the Israeli daily Haaretz.