The disclosure yesterday by Finance Minister Levi Eshkol that the eight-inch Elath pipeline will be replaced with a 16-inch line was seen today as an indication of the success of secret talks in the United States and Europe to raise $25,000,000 for the larger pipeline.
Lord Rothschild and the Rothschild family were reported to have been instrumental in bringing together the American and European investors for the project. They included AMPAL, the American Bank, the Israel Discount Bank and its connected group in Switzerland and the Rothschild Bank as well.
The Beersheba to Haifa section is already 16 inches, experts noted, adding that with completion of the 16-inch line from Elath to Haifa, Israel will become a serious alternative to the Suez Canal for oil transport. The experts said that the full 16-inch line, expected to be completed in about 18 months, will fill all of Israel’s needs and permit the export of 3,000,000 tons of oil through Haifa annually.
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