iamhotep
21.02.09, 05:58
By Amiram Cohen (Haartez) & Editorial comment
Apr 14, 2008, 23:44
U.S. checking possibility of pumping oil from northern Iraq to
Haifa, via Jordan
By Amiram Cohen
The United States has asked Israel to check the possibility of
pumping oil from Iraq to the oil refineries in Haifa. The request
came in a telegram last week from a senior Pentagon official to a
top Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem.
The Prime Minister's Office, which views the pipeline to Haifa as
a "bonus" the U.S. could give to Israel in return for its
unequivocal support for the American-led campaign in Iraq, had asked
the Americans for the official telegram.
The new pipeline would take oil from the Kirkuk area, where some 40
percent of Iraqi oil is produced, and transport it via Mosul, and
then across Jordan to Israel. The U.S. telegram included a request
for a cost estimate for repairing the Mosul-Haifa pipeline that was
in use prior to 1948. During the War of Independence, the Iraqis
stopped the flow of oil to Haifa and the pipeline fell into
disrepair over the years.
The National Infrastructure Ministry has recently conducted research
indicating that construction of a 42-inch diameter pipeline between
Kirkuk and Haifa would cost about $400,000 per kilometer. The old
Mosul-Haifa pipeline was only 8 inches in diameter.
National Infrastructure Minister Yosef Paritzky said yesterday that
the port of Haifa is an attractive destination for Iraqi oil and
that he plans to discuss this matter with the U.S. secretary of
energy during his planned visit to Washington next month. Paritzky
added that the plan depends on Jordan's consent and that Jordan
would receive a transit fee for allowing the oil to piped through
its territory. The minister noted, however, that "due to pan-Arab
concerns, it will be hard for the Jordanians to agree to the flow of
Iraqi oil via Jordan and Israel."
Sources in Jerusalem confirmed yesterday that the Americans are
looking into the possibility of laying a new pipeline via Jordan and
Israel. (There is also a pipeline running via Syria that has not
been used in some three decades.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?
itemNo=332835&contrassID=...'