Publications

At a conference hosted on April 10, 2014 by the Delek Group, a senior partner in the consortium that won the franchise to develop Leviathan, participants were shown a map of the field’s export potential. If this map reflects strategic decisions by the consortium, most of the export targets – Egypt, Jordan, the PA and Turkey – are concentrated in the Mediterranean.  All of the export targets in the region, as well as more distant export targets that depend on facilities located in neighboring countries (Turkey as a country that facilitates exports to Western Europe or the liquefaction installations in Egypt), entail political and security risks. At the same time, transporting natural gas also opens up economic opportunities and possibilities for creating a regional infrastructure map. Such a map would antedate a political map but could enhance regional stability as it would promote shared economic interests. Without expressing an opinion on Delek’s list of potential export target and whether it does or does not exhaust the political and economic interests, not only of the consortium but also of the State of Israel, the authors of this study examine the feasibility of Israeli natural gas exports to Turkey.