Russian energy giant in talks on gas facility in Israel: report

JERUSALEM, Feb 1 (AFP) - The Russian energy giant Gazprom has held talks with Israeli officials about building facilities to liquify natural gas which can then be exported to the United States, the Haaretz daily reported Tuesday.
Gazprom, the world's largest natural gas company, approached former national infrastructure Minister Eliezer Sandberg about the facility shortly before he left office in November last year, the paper said.
Sandberg subsequently instructed his ministry to locate an appropriate site on the Israeli coast which would handle around four billion cubic meters (141 billion cubic feet) of natural gas a year through a marine pipeline from Turkey.
The liquified natural gas (LNG) would then be exported to US markets in refrigerated containers, the paper added.
The national infrastructure ministry made no comment about the report.

02/01/2005 10:56 GMT - AFP