BAKU, June 7(RIA Novosti) - Azerbaijan is looking to boost cooperation in the oil sphere with Israel, the South Caucasus nation's top oilman said Wednesday.
National Oil Company CEO Rovnag Abdullayev told Israel's visiting infrastructure minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, that Azerbaijani crude could be pumped to the Red Sea coast through Israel and that some of it could be refined in Israeli facilities.
Israel hailed the launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which Ben-Eliezer said had brought Azerbaijani oil closer to Israel.
The 1,100-mile pipeline enables Azerbaijan to supply crude from its vast oil fields off the Caspian coast to Western markets via the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
