• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 4 hours GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 7 hours How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 9 hours If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 4 days Oil Stocks, Market Direction, Bitcoin, Minerals, Gold, Silver - Technical Trading <--- Chris Vermeulen & Gareth Soloway weigh in
  • 6 days The European Union is exceptional in its political divide. Examples are apparent in Hungary, Slovakia, Sweden, Netherlands, Belarus, Ireland, etc.
  • 21 hours Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
  • 4 days "What’s In Store For Europe In 2023?" By the CIA (aka RFE/RL as a ruse to deceive readers)
Daniel J. Graeber

Daniel J. Graeber

Daniel Graeber is a writer and political analyst based in Michigan. His work on matters related to the geopolitical aspects of the global energy sector,…

More Info

Premium Content

Israel's Gas Ambitions Put National Security at Risk

The Israeli government said it would tap into new-found natural gas supplies in the Mediterranean Sea in an effort to wean its economy off oil. With international players, including arch foes in Lebanon and Syrian ally Russia, staking out area reserves, the region's bloody territorial disputes may move offshore.

Retail gasoline provider Delek Israel, a division of energy explorer Delek Group, said it plans to open its first compressed natural gas facility in the country within the next year. The strategy is part of an ambitious plan to cut oil use in the Israeli transportation by 60 percent by 2025.

Natural gas is a clean burning fuel relative to other forms, making it a good alternative for national strategies against climate change. For Israel, the combined 2.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas available in the Leviathan and Tamar natural gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea means there are plenty of resources on hand for fuel independence by way of natural gas.

Israel under the terms of its fuel strategy will rely on about 10 percent of the offshore reserves to meet its 2025 targets. In early December, Delek Israel signed a $105 million deal to secure natural gas from Tamar and last month, its parent company said there may be even more gas deposits in the region than previously thought.

Israel's plans are lofty by international standards, meaning it will need to make considerable claims to natural gas reserves in the Mediterranean Sea to meet its goals. Interest in Mediterranean reserves has already prompted Lebanon to complain its territorial sovereignty was under threat and Hezbollah, Israel's arch enemy, vowed to attack should Israel continue working in Leviathan.

Conflict along the land border separating Lebanon from Israel is relatively common, as evidenced by the presence of one of the oldest U.N. peacekeeping missions still mandated to work. In mid-December, the mission, the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, opened an investigation after a Lebanese troop shot and killed an Israeli soldier along the shared border.
 
Lebanon, for its part, vowed to move ahead with a mid-January auction for offshore reserves despite political turmoil at home and regional national security threats from the Syrian civil war.  Though most of its oil and natural gas fields inland are under rebel control, the Syrian government this week said it too was making plans for Mediterranean reserves with the help of Russian oil and gas company Soyuzneftegaz. That deal sparked rebel outrage over Russia's willingness to finance its allies in Damascus.

In February, Genie Energy, which counts former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney as an advisor, expressed interest in developing oil and natural gas potential in the disputed Golan Heights near Lebanon.  When he served as U.S. defense secretary, Cheney made it national policy to ensure Israel has a "qualitative edge" in the region. No stranger to condemnation over its onshore land claims, Israel's offshore ambitions and fuel independence strategy may stir up an already swarming hornet's nest.

By. Daniel J. Graeber of Oilprice.com


Download The Free Oilprice App Today

Back to homepage





Leave a comment
  • Manofsteel11 on December 31 2013 said:
    1. Israel is operating well within its Exclusive Economic Zone as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
    2. Israel has the right and interest to enjoy the fruits of decades of considerable investments in gas exploration, and energy independence is obviously a national interest, just like any other nation.
    3. Many countries (most recently Canada and China) built a fleet especially to defend their gas fields, with US presence all over the globes clearly dominant for a century.
    Having said that, mentioning Cheney's hopes/aspirations in the context of a categorically different legitimate state endeavor in a diffrent place is a political/business statement. Such biased innuendo is not constructive - Middle Eastern parties can in fact come together, cooperate, boost regional economic development and help establish positive mutual dependence, as already seen between Egypt, the Paleatinians and Israel in other gas fields.
  • James Rowntree on December 31 2013 said:
    Israel has every right to exploit oil and gas that belong to it. The truth is the opposite of your headline: If Israel does NOT use its oil and gas, that will put Israeli national security at far more risk. If the Arabs don't like Israel having oil and gas, too bad. Let them try to take it an see what happens. Israel can erase the entire Arab world, oilfields and all in just a few hours.

Leave a comment




EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News