India is actively examining the possibility of sourcing some of its oil imports through the Mediterranean pipeline, or the Black Sea-Red Sea pipeline project, in a bid to diversify its crude oil supply sources. The project would involve India lifting oil from the Israeli port of Eilat on the Red Sea rather than the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Turkish Mediterranean coast, which so far is the practise.

Oil travels to Ceyhan from Azerbaijan across Georgia on the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. If the Black Sea–Red Sea project fructifies then the delivery point for Azeri oil would shift from the Turkish port city of Ceyhan to the Israeli port city of Eilat on the Red Sea. This would allow maritime traders to bypass the congested Suez Canal, and also press Very Large Crude Carriers into service.

Indian officials stressed that the project is still at a conceptual stage and that the economic viability of the project was being examined. It was not necessary that the country would commit itself to direct participation in pipeline construction, they said, and very likely the network would be built by Turkey and Israel.

According to official sources, currently two million tonnes, of the 120 million tonnes of crude oil being annually imported by India, is lifted from Ceyhan.

Officials said that the pipeline was a good idea as it had the potential of being a cheaper alternative to beneficiary countries. They stressed that the onus of making the project feasible rested with Turkey and Israel.

According to officials India would only consider the proposal if the landing price at Eilat would be cheaper than what the country was currently being offered from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait.

As far as Israel and Turkey are concerned, an agreement in principle already exists on the construction of a Black Sea-Red Sea multiple pipeline that would transmit oil, natural gas, water and electricity. There was also a possibility of including a fifth functionality into the system - that of a fibre optical cable system.

The Black Sea-Red Sea pipeline is being looked upon as an extension of the Samsun-Ceyhan project in which Indian Oil Corp is already a 12.5 per cent stakeholder. The project consists of a 550-km pipeline, a new loading terminal in Samsun and oil storage facilities in Ceyhan. With a designed capacity of 1.5 MMbbls the Samsun-Ceyhan project will have a larger capacity than the BTC project.

The construction of Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline will allow most of the Caspian crude oil production to bypass the Bosphorus Strait.

An enormous significance of the Black Sea-Red Sea project also lies in the contribution it can potentially make to the region's development, especially by catering for the water needs of Palestine and Jordan in particular.

Water is an important source of tension in the region.

However, Jordan has already moved ahead with a project to build a water pipeline of its own with no sign of progress on the Black Sea–Red Sea project. But this is not to minimise the project's potential.