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Thursday, April 10, 2014

Exploratory drilling in the Golan Heights?

I received this via email from a contact who lives in the Golan Heights:
In recent days, local residents of the south Golan have discovered that a company called Afek Oil (headed by [former MK and high-ranking IDF officer] Effi Eitam) intends to begin exploratory drilling for oil at ten sites in the south Golan at the end of this month.

The company is actually a subsidiary of the American firm Genie Energy which includes some big names such as Howard Jonas (CEO), Dick Cheney, Rupert Murdoch and Lord Jacob Rothschild. They are also involved in shale oil production in the Piceance Basin in Colarado and in Emek Ella in Israel.
 
Somehow, Afek Oil seems to have secured all manner of permits without the knowledge and involvement of the local residents here.The local residents are in the process of launching a public campaign to stop this (disclosure - including me: one of the sites is literally outside our front gate).  
 
Beyond the obvious environmental and public health concerns, locals are worried about the effect on tourism. With the Golan being relatively remote and employment here hard to come by, many rely on tourism for their main or supplementary income (it is not uncommon here for people to have two or three jobs a bit like crofters in Scotland). The Golan 'brand' of clean air and water and unspoiled landscapes is obviously at odds with Big Oil and with the somewhat antiquated Israeli law dictates that if oil is found in exploratory drilling, it must be exploited, so clearly the initial stage is more than likely to be just the beginning. 

People here are also very concerned about another important aspect of this project. We are already in the cross-hairs of the BDS movement and others seeing as we are perceived as 'occupied territory'. Many of our businesses here which export abroad go to great lengths to remain under the BDS radar. But there is no way that Syria, the Arab League and the UN/EU are going to sit quietly whilst an Israeli/American company drills for oil in the Golan Heights and the resulting unnecessary publicity is liable to damage existing businesses too.

It will of course also be yet another issue which those of us involved in defending Israel in the international arena will have to tackle.
In subsequent emails:
You might wish to add something about the glaringly obvious fact that 17m high drilling platforms two or three kilometers from a border now populated with Al Qaeda linked terrorists seems to be pushing our luck too!
Details of the planning application can be found at the link below if you search according to the case number 21440/ג

http://mavat.moin.gov.il/MavatPS/Forms/SV3.aspx?tid=3   

Petition:
http://www.atzuma.co.il/golanyarok
Both of those links are in Hebrew.

Hmmm....

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4 Comments:

At 6:30 PM, Blogger Sunlight said...

Drill, baby, Drill!

So... the brilliant Start Up Nation innovators should be able to design drill rigs that are flush with ground level or otherwise hardened to attack or sliming by "tourists" or "environmentalists". And cheap scrubbers. But, No! The Progressive Marxists promulgate fables to block energy sources that enhance the lives of the poor, through affordability, and (what the Gaia Progressives throw tantrums about) FREE THEM from Collectivist Ruling Class domination. Drill, baby, drill!

 
At 7:39 PM, Blogger Herb Glatter said...

Norman Podhoretz in the WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304640104579487444112949138?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304640104579487444112949138.html

 
At 7:40 PM, Blogger Herb Glatter said...

Norman Podhoretz in WSJ




http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304640104579487444112949138?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304640104579487444112949138.html

 
At 7:59 PM, Blogger Sunlight said...

And the case that "carbon" is bad has not been borne out in ground truth observed data. All the Gaia Enforcement backup is commie-shaped computer models, not validated or proven out by observed data... that means the Gaia Collectivism is a religion replacement, not a scientific enterprise, and, like all Marcuse/Alinsky New Left Communist religion, it oppresses (if not kills) the poor. This is *not* advocated by the Torah.

Also, Israel has a better chance of self reliance in energy with on-shore pumping (Is that true? That's how it looks from a distance.). On shore facilities would seem more defendable than offshore.

Anyway, this story is over a year old and surprise would mean a lack of internet? :)
http://www.businessinsider.com/israel-grants-golan-heights-oil-license-2013-2

 

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