Israel wants to buy gas from Azerbaijan

Israel plans to sign a long-term contract with Azerbaijan on delivery of natural gas. This was announced today by Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Minister for National infrastructure, in a press conference in Baku.

"I've come to Baku with great hopes and I return home with very good results," Mr Ben-Eliezer said after his meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev and other top officials of the country.

According to the Minister, Israel wants to conclude a contract for 20-30 years. The supply volumes are still debated. According to Ben-Eliezer, in the nearest 10 years the demand of Israel for gas will make 12 billion cubic metres per year, but, certainly, not all of this volume will be bought from Azerbaijan.

It is supposed that Azerbaijani gas will be delivered to Israel by an underwater pipeline from Turkey. It is planned to build the gas-main by 2012. In parallel, it is planned to build an underwater oil pipeline from the Turkish port Dzheikhan to the Israeli city of Ashkelon.

Ilham Shaban, head of the Centre of Oil Researches of Azerbaijan, told in his conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that that the projects offered by Israel have "good prospects", since they need rather small investments.