Secretive state company said to be pressuring ministries, Prime Minister's Office to more than double quota of crude that can be transferred via Red Sea terminal
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel s environment reporter.
An oil tanker docked at the Europe Asia Pipeline Company s port, close to the coral reef nature reserve of Eilat in southern Israel. (Society for the Protection of Nature)
A secretive deal with environmental, health, economic and social implications for Israel, signed by a state company to channel Gulf oil through the country on its way to European markets, should be declared invalid because it was neither discussed nor approved by the government, nor was it opened for consultation with experts and the public, a High Court petition submitted Tuesday charged.
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel s environment reporter.
A fuel tank owned by a Europe Asia Pipeline Company factory just outside of the southern city of Ashkelon, where a fuel leak occurred in late November 2020. (Environmental Protection Ministry)
The Environmental Protection Ministry announced Monday that it had opened a criminal investigation into a fuel leak late last year from a tank owned by the state-owned Europe Asia Pipeline Company Ltd.
The investigation comes as the EAPC is set to significantly expand its activities, amid concerns over the secretive firm’s safety record, six years after it caused what has been called the worst environmental disaster in Israel’s history.
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel s environment reporter.
A sign that reads, Danger, polluted sea is placed on Haifa beach, northern Israel, next to bags full of tar collected by volunteers following an oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea, February 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
The oil spill that has caused the contamination of almost the entire stretch of Israel’s Mediterranean coast with tar is “without doubt a case of malice,” Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel told a press briefing Monday.
“Either the ship dumped oil into the sea on purpose, or the oil leaked out because of a fault,” she said. Either way, the ship’s owner “lacked compassion toward [marine] wildlife and nature and did not inform the authorities.”
550 shares
Over 200 scientists from Israel and around the world are imploring the government to halt plans to turn an aging pipeline into a major means of transporting crude oil from the Persian Gulf to Southern Europe, citing concerns about the risk of an environmental disaster, which could decimate Israel’s renowned coral reefs.
“One ‘small’ malfunction or damage in one of these tankers is enough to cause a major environmental disaster,” write the signatories of a letter sent to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the ministries of Finance and Environmental Protection on Monday.
In October, the state-owned Europe-Asia Pipeline Co., formerly the Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Co., signed a memorandum of understanding with MED-RED Land Bridge, a joint Israeli-UAE venture, to transfer oil and oil-related products from a Red Sea terminal to the Mediterranean via Israeli territory.