Israel, Jerusalem, 12 June / Trend corr R. Abdullayev/ "On the background of Egyptian Government's statement that it intends to review the prices for natural gas supplied to Israel, Israeli Government lobbies and proposes diversification and expansion of gas suppliers to the country," Globs, a leading business newspaper in Israel, reported on 11 June.
According to the paper, a SOCAR delegation (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) will visit Israel in the near future to meet with experts and representatives of the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure, to discuss export of Azerbaijani gas produced in Shah Deniz field to the country.
Globs reported that during his last week's Baku visit; the Israeli Minister for Infrastructure Binyamin Ben Eliezer has asked to accelerate negotiations between the two countries regarding export of Azerbaijani gas.
"Azerbaijan meets about 20% of Israel's oil demand," Globs reported.
In his exclusive interview with Trend last week, Ben-Eliezer said Israel intends to sign a long-term agreement on import of Azerbaijani gas from 2012. "The validity period of the agreement may be 20-30 years," Minister said adding that according to Israel's assessment, gas consumption in the country will ascend to 12bln cu m from current 2-2.5bln cu m per year within next 10 years.
Azerbaijan intends to commence implementation of the Stage-2 of the Shah Deniz project in 2012, as a result of which gas production is supposed to increase to 20mln cu m per year.