Iraq Oil to be ****pped to Israel
By: Amiram Cohen on: 15.04.2008 [05:09 ] (5582 reads)
By Amiram Cohen (Haartez) & Editorial comment
Apr 14, 2008, 23:44
U.S.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
sup****t 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 trans****t 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 ****t 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 Wa****ngton 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.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=332835&contrassID=...'
You Died For That Haifa Pipeline
http://judicial-inc.biz/h.aifa_super_pipeline.htm
Todah Rabah -- thank you.
L'Shalom
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