Agreement signed to operate Israel – UAE oil pipeline

The existing Eilat Ashkelon pipeline will extend to the UAE and save the expense and time of shipping oil from the Gulf through the Suez Canal.
The Europe-Asia Pipeline Co. (formerly the Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Co.) (EAPC) has signed a binding memorandum of understanding in Abu Dhabi with the Med-Red company to operate a land bridge for conveying oil between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The agreement was signed in the presence of US Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, the UAE Minister of Financial Affairs Obaid bin Humaid al Tayer, Deputy Chairman of National Holding and Petromal Hashem Abed Ahmed, US Envoy to the Middle East Avi Berkovitz and Israeli and UAE businesspeople.
The plan is based on the use of the EAPC’s existing infrastructure for conveying oil and distillates from Eilat to Ashkelon and would save the expense and time of shipping oil from the Gulf and through the Suez Canal. The EAPC pipeline would link up with pipelines in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

EAPC said that the cooperation represents good news for the global energy market because it provides the oil producers and manufacturers with a shorter, more efficient and cost savings route for the conveyance of oil and its products from the Gulf to the areas of demand in the west while bringing the markets of East Asia closer to the oil producers in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

EAPC chairman Erez Kalfon said, “This is an historic agreement that will increase cooperation between EAPC and regional and international players. This agreement undoubtedly has great importance for the Israeli economy both economically and strategically and it involves long-term joint investments.