MidnightCall Magazine
News From Israel MagazineIsrael to Become the New Energy Crossroad for India
India is gazing at Israel for a passage to energy security in the age of high oil prices, a move that will give Asia’s fastest growing economy easy access to the abundant Russian, Caucasian and Central Asian crude as an alternative to volatile West Asian supplies but will perhaps also raise hackles of pro-Arab political elements at home.Top oil ministry officials and senior executives of state-owned refiners who look after crude procurement and shipping operations for their companies held talks with representatives of Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Company Ltd, originally an Israel-Iran joint venture that operates a two-way crude and petro-products pipeline to provide a land bridge between the Mediterranean and Red Sea.The pipeline will also open an easier maritime door for oil from Algeria and Libya where India is pushing hard to get acreages and term supplies.The company executives told the ministry officials that using the Israeli link will also allow Indian refiners to use very large crude carriers and save in shipping costs.Majority of the Indian oil shipments now come in smaller vessels, classified as “Suez Max” as they have to cross the Suez Canal which cannot take big carriers.This is the second invitation India has received from an international crude transit route operator. As first reported by TOI, during Mani Shankar Aiyar’s tenure as oil minister, Egypt had offered India partnership in its multi-billion dollar crude pipeline linking the Mediterranean and Red Sea that is being billed as the Suez Canal of oil. The link between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea is considered one of the major choke points in global oil routes. The Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline serves as a land bridge for transporting crude oil from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean and vice versa. -Times of India, 16 April 2008, pg. 23What this report shows is that energy serves as a bridge to unify the world; in this case, India and Israel. This is just another step in the direction of building a solid global family of nations. In the end, the words found in Revelation 17:13 will be precisely fulfilled: “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.”
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