Posted on 05/10/2013 11:32:54 AM PDT by haffast
TEL AVIV, Israel, May 9 (UPI) -- Israel's rapprochement with onetime strategic ally Turkey is a vital element in Ankara's drive to become the intercontinental east-west energy hub in the Mediterranean and many expect it to produce an energy alliance that will transform the region.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan has, since taking power in 2002, transformed his country's economic prospects through a wide-ranging diplomatic drive aimed at restoring Turkish leadership in the region.
He has long sought to transform Turkey, which has no energy resources of its own, into the unassailable central hub for transporting oil and gas from the eastern Mediterranean, the new hot zone, to Europe and maybe to Asia as well.
So there's a powerful geopolitical ambition, rather than a simple commercial objective behind Erdogan's push for energy glory and for Israel to participate.
But there are important technical and geopolitical hurdles to overcome before this or similar plans can be put into action to tap into the estimated 122 trillion cubic feet of gas the U.S. Geological Survey says lies under the Levant Basin.
"The easiest way for Israel to sell the resource abroad would be to build a pipeline running along the coasts of Lebanon and Syria end eventually reaching Turkey," the U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor said.
"But Lebanon and Syria are openly hostile to the idea. Even if they agreed, neither country has a government stable enough to secure such a project in perpetuity."
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(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
Potential Israeli gas-export pipelines - Map
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/potential-israeli-gas-export-pipelines/2013/05/08/d5b2990c-b7f4-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_graphic.html
Libya, Syria, then Lebanon....Turkey wins. Benghazi!
Israel would be better served by putting together a deal with Cyprus and Greece even with their problems than putting a Turkish knife at their throats. Israeli expertise and money might even be able to help stabilize and tilt Cypriot and Greek governments in their favor.
A Judeo-Christian pipeline along the Med floor will have a higher capital cost, but be secure: from Leviathan, around the Basin to south of Cyprus (field), then to south of Crete (field), then Greece, then heel of Italy and to market. Meanwhile, convert Israeli vehicles to CNG.
That is worth $20 billion to avoid.
"The easiest way for Israel to sell the resource abroad would be to build a pipeline running along the coasts of Lebanon and Syria end eventually reaching Turkey," the U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor said.IOW, Stratfor is either hideously overrated, or completely infiltrated by pro-jihadist jack-holes.
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