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National infrastructures ministry director-general: Israel has clear interest to expand its ties with Azerbaijan in alternative and renewable energy sources

Oil&Gas Materials 25 May 2010 22:26 (UTC +04:00)
Israel is interested in increasing the number of gas suppliers to its market, National Infrastructures Ministry Director-General Shaul Zemach said in an interview with Trend

Azerbaijan, Baku, May 25 /Trend, U.Sadikhova/

Israel is interested in increasing the number of gas suppliers to its market, National Infrastructures Ministry Director-General Shaul Zemach said in an interview with Trend by e-mail.

"We are interested in having more suppliers to the market place in order to strengthen our energy security," Zemach said.

Zemach said Israeli gas market is privatized and the State of Israel can not purchase gas or oil by itself, since both have to be purchased by companies or other non state actors.

Regarding the possibility of acquiring Azerbaijani gas, Director-General of the Ministry said it is still early to determine anything as the negotiations between Azerbaijan and Turkey are not concluded yet.

According to Zemach, a year ago large gas reservoirs were discovered on the Israeli economic water.

"The studies show that these two big reservoirs contain around 250 BCM, which will be sufficient for Israeli market for the next 20-25 years," Zemach said.
According to him, Israel has a clear interest to expand its ties with Azerbaijan in all fields and mainly in alternative and renewable energy sources.
He said this can be done through cooperation in research and development which Israel is ready to share. Through the years, Israel has invested tremendous resources in r&d of the solar energy as well as in water technologies and management, in order to provide the energy and water resources need of a small and isolated state. We are ready and interested to share our  vast experience in this fields," Zemach said.

Speaking about Israeli-offered project on transportation of Azerbaijani oil via the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, Zemach said currently there is no progress on this frontier as the issue has to be explored and decided by the private sector which has to determine whether this project is visible and economic.
"The government has a clear interest to support this project, but as I have mentioned earlier, the oil and gas sectors are privatized and therefore, the companies themselves have to decide their economic interest in this project," Zemach said.

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