ΕΠΙΚΑΙΡΟΣ 
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| Διασύνδεση του Λεβιάθαν με την Ιορδανία διαμέσου του εσωτερικού δικτύου φυσικού αερίου του Ισραήλ INGL. |
Amos J Hochstein
Special Envoy, Bureau of Energy Resources
Brussels, Belgium
November 28, 2016
[...] Q from Moderator – Thanks, and one more follow up point, which is something that Sir. Michael introduced you with, which is the Southern Corridor. You’ve done a lot work in the Eastern Mediterranean, a lot of work on the Southern Corridor, its value for Europe. What do you think is the prospect there for the future? We have some Cyprus talks coming up, and also some new finds in the East Med of gas. How do you see this region developing and its significance developing for Europe?
A. Hochstein: I think this is where energy is the coolest thing. Because it’s never going to lead politics. But the reason why I’ve spent so much of my time on the Eastern Mediterranean, after all it’s not that big of a resource when you compare it to the world’s largest resources out there – in Qatar, Australia, Russia, the United States, Iran – but what’s cool about it is you have a number of countries may make use of it – Cyprus, Israel, potentially Lebanon, Egypt. But none of them can develop it on their own. They all have a challenge that makes it impossible to develop. Israel has not gotten to a point where it can develop LNG terminals on its own to export. And therefore they need somebody else to help them monetize their massive discoveries. Cyprus doesn’t have enough of discovery yet to produce it on its own, so it has the same problem that Israel does. Egypt has the resource, has infrastructure, but it has demand issues at home, and challenges with the ownership of the infrastructure.
And so therefore it seemed to us that this is a place where energy can actually anchor cooperation, in a region that doesn’t do that very often. And if you look at the geopolitical implications of the energy discoveries – they’ve been transformative. Israel and Cyprus – today we’ve gotten used to the fact that they are best of friends. That was not the case a very, very short time ago. From the independence of both countries, it was a cold relationship at best. And energy is the only reason that transformed the relationship from cold to not just warm, but extremely warm- and strategic.
We talk about energy cooperation between Israel and Egypt. The United States helped – you know I spent months traveling to Jordan for negotiations between Israel and Jordan, or rather between Noble Energy and corporations on the side of Jordan, and we now have two pipeline agreements between Israel and Jordan – one in the Dead Sea and one in the North. [iEpikaira: Όπως φαίνεται στο χάρτη Μπάιντεν παραπάνω!] Cooperation with Egypt. Cooperation potentially with Turkey. If you have a deal on Cyprus (which I’m still extremely hopeful we can reach in a couple of weeks [iEpikaira: Διαπραγματεύσεις Μον Πελεράν!]) then you can have a pipeline from Israel via Cyprus to Turkey. And look what you can suddenly do. Expand the region of Eastern Med importance – the decisions being made in Baku, and Turkey, and Jerusalem, and Nicosia, and Egypt, and Greece, and Bulgaria altogether. That’s remarkable.
And that could have an impact on Europe as a supply source close to its borders, that is cheap in transportation costs. But it also has a geopolitical implication of cementing economic ties between countries that don’t really know what that looks like, that don’t have any history of that. Hopefully with a new president there, maybe Lebanon can join the game as well. That’s my hope. But that’s what’s really cool about the energy piece. And I should add that without it, I don’t believe that the normalization between Israel and Turkey would have been finalized. You’d still be in round 17 of talks. So I think these are really interesting opportunities that can come up with identifying energy as a potential for collaboration and interconnection – towards prosperity and security. [...]
[iEpikaira: Είναι ξεκάθαρο ότι από το 2016 οι ΗΠΑ δεν ήθελαν τον EastMed αλλά αγωγό φ/α από το Ισραήλ προς την Τουρκία μέσω Κύπρου!]
Source: https://2009-2017.state.gov/e/enr/rls/264644.htm
