The existence of a narrow land bridge between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea led to a decision in the middle of the last century to lay a pipeline through southern Israel and, combined with storage terminals, to serve the transit of crude oil from oil producing sources in the Persian Gulf to customers in Europe.
The Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Co. Ltd. was established in 1968 as the successor to companies that had transported oil over the same land bridge in the 1950’s and 1960’s.