Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 15 / Trend /
Israel and Turkey have held preliminary talks on piping gas from Leviathan field in Israel to Turkish market, International Oil Daily (IOD) reported.
However, according to the Turkish energy ministry spokesman, the talks are in an infant stage.
He said that Israel has made some suggestions to the ministry about the project on export of Israeli gas to Turkey.
"From the ministry's standpoint, we have listened to them and we will conduct a review of this [suggestions] later. But there is no progress on this project yet," the spokesman tells IOD.
An Israeli project source confirmed to IOD the fact of holding negotiations, however, added that they are extremely sensitive given the recent history between both states.
Leviathan natural gas field is located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea area, off the coast of Israel. It was discovered in December 2010.
Relations soured between Turkey and Israel after eight Turkish nationals and one Turkish American were killed when the Israeli navy attacked an international humanitarian aid flotilla, of which the Turkish Mavi Marmara was a part, attempting to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza in May 2010. Following the attack, Turkey vowed to pursue every kind of opportunity from within international platforms to squeeze Israel diplomatically.