MOU for Israel-Europe Gas Pipeline to be Signed This Week

The world’s longest underwater pipeline will allow Israel to export gas to Europe

A memorandum of understanding for the laying of an underwater gas pipeline from Israel to Europe will be finally signed on Tuesday, December 5. The deal will be signed in Nicosia, Cyprus, at an energy summit.

The summit will be attended by Israel’s Minister of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources Yuval Steinitz and his counterparts from Cyprus, Italy, Greece and the EU. At the last energy summit which took place in April in Israel, the sides decided to move forward with the project.

This large pipeline will be 2,000 kilometers long and will be ready to use by 2025. It will connect Israel’s Leviathan gas field, run via Cyprus’s Aphrodite gas field getting to Greece and Italy. The initial estimate of the cost of the pipeline is $6 billion. This pipeline will be able to convey 12–16 billion cubic meters (BCM) of gas a year.

To justify the cost of laying the pipeline, the gas prices will have to increase. Therefore, the project could become more profitable if Israel finds other major gas fields and lowers the costs.