Israel Matzav

Oh my: Large amounts of oil discovered on Golan Heights

Well, this ought to excite the 'international community.'

After more than a year of round-the-clock drilling, large amounts of oil have been found on the Golan Heights. Estimates are that the amount of oil discovered will make Israel self sufficient for very many years to come. 

Afek Oil and Gas chief geologist Dr. Yuval Bartov told Channel 2 News, "We are talking about a strata which is 350 meters thick and what is important is the thickness and the porosity. On average in the world strata are 20-30 meters thick, so this is ten times as large as that, so we are talking about significant quantities. The important thing is to know the oil is in the rock and that's what we now know." 

Three drillings have so far taken place in the southern Golan Heights which have found large reserves of oil. Potential production is dramatic - billions of barrels, which will easily provide all Israel's oil needs. Israel consumes 270,000 barrels of oil per day. 

Although the existence of the oil in the ground is a fact, the critical phase now is to check how easily it can be extracted and whether it involves high production costs. In a period of very low oil prices, extraction will have to be relatively cheap to make exploitation of the field profitable.

Once again, the Golda Meir quip about Moses taking us to the one place in the Middle East that doesn't have oil is proven wrong. Yet another reason to be glad that Rabin, Barak and Netanyahu (all of whom tried) did not give the Golan back to Syria.

I wonder if there's any on the Syrian side. They'd have to stop shooting to find out....

 

Labels: Golan Heights, oil and gas exploration

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:34 PM