Page 11 - DMEA Week 30 2021
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DMEA                                           PIPELINES                                              DMEA


       Israel freezes RED MED pipe deal





        MIDDLE EAST      ISRAEL’S Ministry of Environmental Protection  crude oil and oil-related products from the Red
                         this week announced that it was delaying the  Sea to the Mediterranean without traversing
                         development of an oil transmission project that  either the Suez Canal the or Strait of Hormuz,
                         will pipe Emirati oil from the Red Sea directly to  providing that the crude was exported from the
                         the Mediterranean.                   eastern emirate of Fujairah.
                           The pipeline’s backers had submitted an envi-  RED MED is jointly owned by Petromal, part
                         ronmental risk assessment in response to a chal-  of Abu Dhabi-based National Holding, Israeli
                         lenge by parties concerned that the project would  company AF Entrepreneurship, and interna-
                         heighten the risk of an oil spill.   tional infrastructure and energy company Lub-
                           Despite claiming the risk from increased  ber Line.
                         crude flows was minute, the Europe Asia Pipe-  Given the accession to the job of environ-
                         line Co. (EAPC) – formerly Eilat Ashkelon Pipe-  mental protection minister of the Meretz Party’s
                         line Co. – was informed by the ministry that the  Tamar Zandberg, a vocal critic of the proposed
                         report “did not meet the [ministry’s] conditions”,  pipeline, the decision to freeze the deal is
                         adding that it was “delaying the evaluation of  unsurprising.
                         your preparations to increase activity in the Eilat   Meanwhile, the office of newly appointed
                         port, until the government has a discussion and  Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that it had
                         reaches a decision” on the development.  “asked the court for an extension of time, in order
                           The new old pipeline, first built in the 1960s  to respond to the petition filed by the environ-
                         to transport Iranian oil to Israel, is being repur-  mental organisations”. Eilat had previously been
                         posed by its new owner the EAPC to help RED  considered as the location of a potential floating
                         MED Land Bridge Co., a joint venture between  LNG (FLNG) facility but was discounted on
                         Israel and the UAE, to transport UAE-origin  environmental grounds.™
























































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