The existence of a narrow land bridge between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean led, in the middle of the last century, to a decision to build a pipeline through southern Israel and to use it, with the aid of storage terminals, for transporting crude oil from sources in the Arabian Gulf to consumers in Europe.
Of the four options for transporting crude oil from the Gulf to Europe - around the Cape of Good Hope, via the Suez Canal, via the Sumed Pipeline and via our system - ours is the shortest, most efficient and cheapest.
The Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company (EAPC) was founded in 1968, as a successor to the companies which transported crude oil in the 1950's and 1960's via this land bridge. The Company operated successfully throughout periods of dynamic changes in the local and international oil markets and during times of political upheaval.
In recent years and following a strategic decision to enlarge our basis of operations, we expanded the scope of our activities beyond the traditional services of transporting and storing crude oil to Israeli and international customers.
EAPC now provides infrastructure services in such areas as oil products, LPG and coal. EAPC opened a receiving terminal for natural gas from Israeli and outside sources. In the future EAPC considers operating the Israeli LNG port and terminal.
In the summer of 2003 we completed a major project named "The Reverse Flow Project" which enables us to pump crude oil through the 42'' Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline in both directions. The completion of this project increases commercial opportunities, including expansion of the operational storage capacity and will enable transfer of crude oil from the Mediterranean to Eilat and from there to markets in Asia.
Due to lack of storage capacity in the Mediterranean Basin, EAPC expanded its oil products' storage capability and simultaneously, constructing an additional crude oil storage capacity in Ashkelon Terminal.
We will continue to expand our activities even further, beyond the traditional operations in the energy field.
EAPC, with its efficient control and management systems, maintains the strictest ecological and safety standards on land and sea.
Our managers and experienced workers enable us to carry out both routine activities and also to grow and make significant progress and development, while, at the same time, maintaining the highest level of services to our customers.
