Chief Economist at the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol said that the Israeli apology would facilitate a close partnership between Turkey and Israel on energy projects in a way to isolate the Greek Cypriot administration. "(The Israeli apology) opened the way for Turkey to be a world champion in energy transferring", said Birol, stating that Turkey could transfer the energy resources to the world market together with Israel. Birol indicated that Turkey offers the most economically advantageous way for Israel to transfer the Eastern Mediterranean natural gas to international markets.
Birol also predicted that Israel had the capacity to extract 7-8 times more gas than its internal need to be sold in the international markets.
Birol said that no obstacle remained in importing Israeli gas, while there is a rising interest on the gas around Cyprus.
Adding that the cost of extracting the gas is not yet known, Birol said "We know there are rich reserves."
On the other side, according to an article which had appeared on Financial Times on March 25, the Greek Cypriot administration was envisaged to be isolated as Turkey and Israel could cooperate on natural gas reserves issue.
On the same day, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan had criticized Greek Cypriots' idea of using Eastern Mediterranean reserves as collateral for acquiring loans, and said "The reserves are not only theirs. According to the international law, they belong to all inhabitants of the island."