Page 18 - issue 29 En

ELITE ISSUE 29, MARCH 2021

A New Cold War: Israel plans to lead on as the

region’s energy hub, threatening Egypt’sSuez Canal

Youssef Sharaf, 3rd Level, Political Science

Before we start talking about the new Israeli project underway, we On October 20, 2020, and within the framework of the
must first note that since 2009, with the beginning of the discovery normalized relations between the two countriessince September
of new gas fields, -with the most important of which was Tamar 2020, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the
field on the coast of Israel-, the eastern Mediterranean has become State of Israel, represented by the Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline
an energy hot spot. Indeed, in recent times, discoveries have Company (EAPC) and the United Arab Emirates, represented
continued, which strengthened the positions of many coastal by a multinational company, MED-RED Land Bridge,
countries, including Egypt, where the Italian company Eni regarding the use of the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline that has existed
discovered more energy reserves off its coast between 2017 and for 50 years (used to secretly transport Iran's oil to Europe
2018. In spite of these important discoveries, geopolitical tensions before the 1979 revolution). The latter connects the city of Eilat
between coastal countries in providing their alternatives to transfer on the Red Sea to Ashkelon overlooking the Mediterranean, and
energy to European markets, are increasing, especially after the the project is to transport the UAE crude oil to European and
recent Turkish provocations. In this regard, Cairo and Tel Aviv are North American markets, via this pipeline in Israel. According
rushing to present their plans and proposals that would allow each to what Israeli newspapers, including the Globeseconomic
of them to become a regional energy hub. In this context, and in newspaper have said, under this deal, which may be worth
light of the strategy of the State of Israel to reap the maximum between 700 and 800 million dollars over several years (the
amount of political and economic gains, the Netanyahu’s financial details have not been announced yet), the UAE has
government is moving towards a new project that is expected to two options to transport oil to the port of Eilat, either through an
have its direct impact and threat on the revenues of Egypt’s Suez oil tanker across the Red Sea or through a pipeline extended
inside the Saudi territory. Accordingly, the plan included the
Canal.
UAE to convince Saudi Arabia (which still doesn’t recognize
Israel, at least officially) to allow Israel to establish a land or sea
pipeline, linking the oil refineries in Yanbu in Saudi Arabia, and
the port of Eilat in Israel. Oil will then be transported via the
Eilat-Ashkelon line and from there to western markets via the
infrastructure of the Eilat Ashkelon Oil Pipeline Company
(EAPC), which, declared that this will "save time, fuel and costs
versus crossing the Suez Canal."In fact, Itzik Levy Levy, CEO
of the company, in an interview with US Foreign Policy, went
further, describing the deal as "historic" and saying that this
158-mile(24 km) line, “could eliminate a large share of the oil
shipments that now flow through the Suez Canal”. In this
regard, the same magazine published on September 5, 2020 a
report stating that "the advantage of the pipeline over the Suez
Canal is the ability of terminals in Ashkelon and Eilat to
accommodate the giant tankers that dominate oil shipping
today, that are too large to fit through the canal." And in this
regard, we have to clearly ask: Will the Gulf-Israeli project
actually affect the income of the Suez Canal?
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