The Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Company (E.A.P.C.) has initiated an international consortium of energy companies to establish a crude oil pipeline in Israel to facilitate shipping crude oil to the Far East. The oil would reach the port city of Ashkelon by tankers from Turkey, which would receive the oil from the former Soviet Bloc regions of Georgia and Azerbaijan.

After being moved by a pipeline to Eilat, the oil then would be loaded on tankers that would ship it to eastern Asia. E.A.P.C. recently staged a trial run of a shipment and said that the project could save transport costs for Asian importers.