Yuval Steinitz
Yuval SteinitzYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Turkey's Energy Minister Berat Albayrak is set to visit Israel by the end of this year to conclude an agreement for the building of a natural gas pipeline from the Jewish state to Turkey, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said on Wednesday.

According to Steinitz, both countries decided to accelerate efforts to conclude by the end of this year an intergovernmental agreement that will enable the construction of a pipeline from Israel to Turkey.

"Hopefully, Mr. Albayrak will pay a visit to Israel this year in 2017, which will help us accelerate and try to conclude this agreement," he said at the World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul after meeting
Albayrak.

He added that no exact date had been fixed but it would take place in the coming months.

"We want to build a pipeline stretching from Israel to Turkey in order to able to export natural gas from Israel to Turkey," Steinitz said, adding that the Israeli gas could be delivered to Europe and to the Balkans through Turkey.

In 2016, Israel and Turkey agreed to begin discussing a deal that would include building a gas pipeline from the Leviathan site to Europe. The first sale to a power plant, was signed in May of that year. One month later, in June 2016, the two countries signed a reconciliation agreement, six years after their relations deteriorated after the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident.