Israel’s minister of infrastructure, energy and water, Yuval Steinitz promoted the idea of Eastern Mediterranean natural gas a stabilizing force in the region this past week, in remarks made at the IHS Energy CERAWeek in Houston.
The minister suggested that natural gas produced in the region and a functioning transport infrastructure could ease regional tension by providing ample energy resources to all those countries in need of it.
“I think it might serve stability at least in part of the Middle East,” said Steinitz.
Steinitz’s comments refer to the significant offshore gas reserves found in the Eastern Mediterranean. While a number of countries lay some claim to the offshore discoveries, Israel and Cyprus have made some of the most substantial progress in exploiting the find. While regional actors like Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey have also taken steps towards developing their own offshore potential, Cyprus and Israel – and to some degree, Greece, have made the most progress towards these goals.
While the minister’s comments offer a broader scope of influence than seen before, the region’s energy potential has been cited by many as a unifying force in the past. In recent years, the financial potential of the offshore discoveries have been used to motivate unification talks in Cyprus. Further, the reserves and information about how best to access and exploit them have spurred discussion of new partnerships between Cyprus, Greece and Egypt, not to mention new trade paths between Egypt and Israel, reversing years of east-bound pipeline traffic.
However, just as the reserves have been used to promote greater regional cohesion, they have also emerged as a sticking point for long-standing debates over maritime borders, claims and pathways for potentially lucrative transport options.
SOURCE
