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....
Is Kurdistan stashing oil in Israel? Consider this:
Of the 25 tankers that have left Turkey loaded with Kurdish oil since
May, 13 have gone dark—just as the Kalavryta did on Aug. 26. Most of
the time this happens somewhere in the Mediterranean, either off the
coast of Malta or Cypress or Israel, or sometimes only a few miles away
from Ceyhan. Although it’s not quite smuggling, “it’s about as dicey as
it gets on the open seas,” says Charlie Papavizas, a maritime lawyer at
Winston & Strawn, a law firm in Washington. “What the Kurds are
doing is at the margins of the business, no doubt about that.”
Rather than delivering oil directly from port to port and creating a
public record of the shipment, the Kurds are instead transferring oil
from tanker to tanker at sea, often at night and often after switching
off the ship’s electronic transponder that reports its position to
satellites. When the transponder comes back on, the ship is usually
miles away from its last known position and sitting higher in the water,
which means its cargo is lighter. Shuffling the oil from ship to ship
masks the ultimate buyer and makes it almost impossible to track.
ClipperData, a New York-based company founded in 2012, uses customs data
and ship-tracking information to follow the movements of tankers and
estimate import volumes. Every time a ship docks in the U.S., Customs
and Border Protection releases data on what it’s carrying. “It’s a real
dog’s breakfast,” says Abudi Zein, ClipperData’s co-founder and chief
operating officer. “You have to separate the olive oil from the crude
oil.” ClipperData sells its information to about 50 clients, mostly oil
traders and financial firms. The Kurdish ghost tankers have provided a
particular challenge. “This is among the weirdest things we’ve ever
seen,” Zein says. “You feel like a submarine chaser.”
Once a ship’s transponder goes off, detecting whether it’s unloaded
its cargo to another ship is a matter of being able to narrow down the
handful of vessels that are in its vicinity. ClipperData has built
algorithms that can tell when two ships get within a tenth of a mile, or
about 500 feet. “When they’re that close, they’re either transferring
the oil or they’re crashing into each other,” Zein says. ClipperData has
tracked one shipment of Kurdish oil going to Croatia, where it was
bought by MOL,
a Hungarian company, to run its refinery there. Three shipments have
been delivered to Israel, each containing roughly 200,000 barrels, Zein
says. Because neither of Israel’s two refineries is well-suited to
process Kurdistan’s heavy crude, “what we’re now convinced of is that
Kurdish crude is being stored in Israel,” he says.
One ship in particular caught Zein’s attention. On Aug. 2, about 15
miles off the coast of Malta, a tanker called the Genmar Strength
suddenly got heavier, indicating some 200,000 barrels had been loaded
onto it. At the same time, in almost exactly the same location, a ship
called the Agisilaos unloaded the same amount of oil. The cargo was
listed as a heavy crude consistent with Kurdish oil; it had been loaded
onto the Agisilaos 10 days earlier at Ashkelon, Israel, while the ship’s
transponder was off, Zein says. The Genmar Strength immediately headed
west across the Atlantic. On Aug. 19 it delivered about 200,000 barrels
of cargo to an asphalt plant outside Philadelphia. The plant is operated
by Axeon Specialty Products, a chemical and asphalt company owned by
private equity firm Lindsay Goldberg. A shipment of similar heavy oil
arrived at the same plant in June. Axeon has said it is not buying
Kurdish oil until the dispute over the Kalavryta is settled. Lindsay
Goldberg did not reply to requests for comment.
Read the whole thing. Nigerian oil is also sometimes sold through what's known in the business as TTL (tanker top loading). But I've never heard of the tankers disappearing like that. Hmmm.
Is Turkey about to attack Cyprus and possibly Greece? After today's events, you have to wonder.
On Friday, Turkey sent a seismographic vessel to look for oil and gas deposits within Cyprus economic exclusion zone. Turkey had already deployed a warship south of Cyprus, and the announcement sent tensions soaring.
On Friday, October 3, a day after US Vice President Joe Biden pontificated
about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “desire” to have “no
Turkish soldiers” remain in Cyprus, Turkey sent Turkish-Greece-Cyprus
tensions soaring by issuing a Navigational Telex, or NAVTEX, according
to which Turkey was sending a seismographic vessel to explore areas in
the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in Cyprus's southern waters.
...
According to the Cyprus Mail and other Cypriot news sources,
the NAVTEX notifies mariners and countries that Turkey, as a sovereign,
is reserving areas south of Cyprus for seismic surveys from October 20
to December 20 of this year. Turkey has basically issued a stark warning
Cyprus, America and Israel that Turkish exploratory vessels were under
Turkish sovereign protection, and were not to be disturbed even though
they were exploring in areas south of Cyprus, an action that Turkey had
never taken before.
Prior to this NAVTEX, the Eastern Mediterranean was already tense due
to the fact that the Turkish armed forces had deployed the Turkish
warship TCG Gelibolu to the south of Cyprus, and had further announced
that the warship would continue to monitor the activities of Italian
firm ENI’s drillship in block 9 in the waters south of Cyprus.
The TCG Gelibolu is participating in an ongoing Turkish Naval
operation, dubbed “Mediterranean Shield.” Under Operation Mediterranean
Shield, Turkish ships are ostensibly “conducting maritime security
operations to provide for the safe and secure movement of vessels at sea
and to deter terrorism.”
In fact, the TCG Gelibolu could be setting the stage for actual armed hostilities.
...
Making matters worse, the Turkish NAVTEX designated and reserved
coordinates that would trespass into Cyprus’ Southern water EEZ Blocks
1, 2, 3, 8 and 9. These are the blocks roughly between Cyprus and
Israel. Inside sources told the Cyprus Mail that “essentially Turkey has
bisected the region between Cyprus’ southern coast and Egypt, as if
Cyprus does not exist.”
A government spokesman in Nicosia said President Anastasiades'
decision was the result of Turkey's "provocative" and "aggressive"
actions to start seismic tests off the island's southern coast later
this month and that the plan was a "serious breach" of its sovereign
rights as well as the rights of its own drilling consortium, consisting
of Italy's Eni and South Korea's Kogas in the EEZ Block 9.
"The least I can say is that negotiations, in order to produce
results, cannot be conducted under such conditions of provocation," said
Ioannis Kasoulides, the Cypriot foreign minister, on Monday.
The looming danger is Turkish Frigate Gelibolu is currently deployed
in the same areas that the Turkish NAVTEX has cordoned off for the
Turkish gas exploration ship, which is set to enter the Cyprus EEZ
blocks on October 20. If these two Turkish ships should act in tandem,
this could be the tinder which could set the area aflame.
בימים ההם אין מלך ... איש כל הישר בעיניו יעשה.
(In those days, there was no King... each man did what he saw fit - translation from the book of Judges).
Barack Obama chose to degrade the United States' capabilities to the point where the world no longer has a (Western, democratic) superpower. And now the rest of the world is doing whatever it wants.
Israel becoming Jordan's chief supplier of natural gas
Israel has signed an agreement to provide the Kingdom of Jordan with $15 billion worth of natural gas from its Leviathan well over the next 15 years. The Leviathan well is located some 81 miles west of Haifa. It's the largest natural gas deal Israel has ever signed and will make Israel the Kingdom's chief natural gas supplier.
The new deal is the largest collaboration with
Jordan to date, and will make Israel its chief supplier, according to
the Globes business news website.
The final agreement will be subject to the
approval of Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom, who is expected to
confirm it. According to Globes, the US was involved in the
negotiations. US envoy Amos Hochstein was said to attend the signing of
the memorandum.
Representatives of the Delek Group Ltd. and Nobel Energy Inc. were in Jordan to sign the agreement.
Shalom hailed the agreement, and referred to
it as “a historic act that will strengthen the economic and diplomatic
ties between Israel and Jordan.”
“At this time, Israel is becoming an energy
superpower, which will supply the energy needs of its neighbors and
strengthen its standing as a central source of energy supply in the
region, and I welcome it,” he said in a statement.
In February, Israel signed a deal with Jordan
to supply $500 million worth of gas to the Hashemite kingdom from the
Tamar natural gas field in the Mediterranean.
The Jordanians turned to Israel because their
supply of natural gas from Egypt had been halted by repeated terrorist
attacks on the gas pipeline from Egypt, a Channel 2 report said.
I'm sure the Egyptians are thrilled.... Well, like we always say, business is business.
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
Former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin joins Fox News' Sean Hannity to
define the vast differences of leadership between Barack Obama and
Vladimir Putin.
Let's go to the videotape.
And Israel is going to accept 'guarantees' from Obama? Surely you jest.
#BDS_FAIL: 'Palestinians' first buyers of Israeli natural gas
The BDS'ers are seething. Israel's Leviathan natural gas well has entered into its first contract. And the contract is with... the 'Palestinians.'
The first buyer of natural gas from Israel’s largest gas field will be
the Palestine Power Generation Company, which will purchase some $1.2
billion-worth of gas over 20 years, one of the major partners in the
field announced on Sunday.
The Leviathan group will sell the [Palestine Power Generation Company] PPGC, which
supplies power to Palestinian areas in the West Bank, as much as 4.75
billion cubic meters of gas when the Leviathan reserve begins to yield
in 2016 or 2017, the Delek Group said in a statement.
The Delek conglomerate owns 45.34 percent of
the field, followed by the US-based Noble Energy with 39.66% and Ratio
Oil Exploration’s 15%. Leviathan’s estimated reserves – 537 billion
cubic meters – make it the largest offshore gas discovery in a decade.
The Palestinian company aims to build a $300
million power plant in the West Bank city of Jenin to produce
electricity from the gas, Reuters reported.
Given the 'Palestinians' track record on payments, maybe we shouldn't be so happy about this one....
What if Saudi Arabia became irrelevant to the world economy?
An oil discovery in a remote area of Australia threatens to make Saudi Arabia irrelevant to the world's oil markets and economy.
It is 6 times larger than the Bakken, 17 times the size of the
Marcellus formation, and 80 times larger than the Eagle Ford shale.
All
told the recent discovery outside a sleepy Australian town contains
more black gold than in all of Iran, Iraq, Canada, or Venezuela.
The
current estimates of 233 billion barrels are just 30 billion barrels
shy of the estimated reserves in all of Saudi Arabia.
Now, one renowned international energy expert predicts the proven reserves will be much bigger.
"The
find may land at 300 or 400 billion barrels, making it one of the
greatest unconventional oil discoveries any of us will see in our
lifetimes," says Dr. Kent Moors and advisor to six of the top 10 oil producers and active consultant to 20 world governments.
"It represents a bona-fide redrawing of the global energy map as we know it," Moors says, "and the mainstream media is completely ignoring it."
Asia to replace Europe as Israel's biggest trading partner?
In light of last month's publication of Europe's Nuremberg guidelines, which seek to force Israel to declare that Judea, Samaria, 'east' Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are not part of our country, there are increasing calls in Israel to turn away from Europe toward Asia as its main trading partner. Here's former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold.
[Former Middle East expert for the US Vice President's office David] Wurmser concludes that Israel
make Asia its preferred export destination and not Europe. This is a
decision Israel will have to make as it influences how it builds its
energy infrastructure. If Europe begins to present itself as an
unreliable trading partner, then there will be many more Israeli voices
who adopt the idea of making Asia into Israel's preferred market for its
gas exports.
Professor Yisrael Aumann, Nobel prize winner in Economics, reaches a similar conclusion in an interview with Yisrael HaYom.
Is there an alternative to the West?
"There's an economic awakening in Asia --
China, Korea, India, Singapore, Kazakhstan. That's something new. It
increases global competition, and competition is good for the economy. I
see it as a good thing, not just for Israel but for the whole world."
Do you see it as the rise of a new civilization in place of the one we've known so far?
"I don't want to be that kind of prophet. It's
obvious that the Far East is waking up, but it's still too early to
talk about the decline of the West. The Chinese asked me what I
suggested for them. I said: 'Learn English now so that in another 50
years, the whole world will learn Chinese.' They're not interested in us
for nothing. Despite the political difficulties, there are games that
we, as a nation, are winning. Israeli scientific research is such a
victory. So are Israeli technology and the start-ups -- what the world
calls 'the start-up nation.'"
Gold believes that Europe needs Israel economically more than Israel needs Europe.
A
German adviser to Chancellor Angela Merkel told The Jerusalem Post last
month that European cooperation with Israel in research and development
in the EU's Horizon 2020 program is a European interest and not just an
Israeli interest.
The background to the
EU's program with Israel is the need for Europe to improve its global
competitiveness and increase jobs and economic growth on the continent
after years of sluggish growth. The Horizon 2020 program is not a
European handout to Israel, but a joint initiative by which Israel puts
up funds by itself and receives 1.6 euros for joint research and
development for every euro it puts in.
Because of its
scientific prowess, Israel is the only non-European country to have been
invited to take part in this program. The Europeans knew what they were
doing by inviting Israel, which is no longer viewed as a country known
only for its Jaffa oranges, as it was in the 1950s. Clearly, both sides
benefit from this cooperation and both have much to lose by its
politicization by EU bureaucrats in Brussels.
So what were the
Europeans thinking when they got Israel involved in the first place?
Economists have long recognized that knowledge-based industries are the
fastest-growing portion of the global economy, and serve as engines for
economic growth. These are precisely the technological fields in which
Israel leads and which Europe needs.
In their book "Start-Up
Nation," Dan Senor and Saul Singer quote an American high-tech
executive who admits that for companies like Google, Microsoft, and
Intel, "the best-kept secret is that we all live and die by the work of
our Israeli teams."
Why should Europe
jeopardize its cooperation with Israel, which has served as such an
important partner for the U.S. companies? To go down the path of
limiting its scientific cooperation with Israel seems to be, ultimately,
a self-defeating policy for Europe itself.
Then there is the issue
of Israel's offshore gas fields. Europe presently imports most of its
gas from Russia and from North Africa. David Wurmser used to serve as a
Middle East expert for the U.S. vice president's office and later
advised Noble Energy, which is involved in Israeli gas exploration. He
points out in a paper for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs that
there are today five existing or planned pipelines connecting Europe
with the gas of North Africa. Four of the pipelines come through
Algeria, which is facing growing threats from al-Qaida affiliates.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, as in Sinai, they have shown their
readiness to sabotage such pipelines. Having another source of gas from
Israel could be critical for Europe if some of its current energy
sources do not come available.
Aumann, whose specialty is game theory, believes that Israel doesn't need European money for scientific cooperation.
"The scientific cooperation
doesn't depend on money. It doesn't depend on grants. On the contrary.
The grants depend on the scientific cooperation. Here at the Center for
the Study of Rationality, we had long-term cooperation without European
money. The money doesn't create cooperation, so it doesn't look like it
will be affected."
Aumann's manner is calm even when I mention
things that should be upsetting -- not just to him, of course, but also
to the entire institution of higher education. This is how he responds
to Hebrew University Professor Shai Arkin's statement that severing
research relationships would damage the universality of Israeli research
and make it provincial:
"I don't share those concerns. It seems to me
that there was good cooperation with the Europeans and the Americans
before, and it will go on afterward, too. The Europeans aren't
threatening to sever scientific connections. Scientific connections
aren't money. I had a case where I had a close scientific connection
with one of the European researchers. He visited us in Israel often. One
day, he joined the boycott of Israel. We were shocked and acted in a
way that resulted in him losing more than we did. We continued to
thrive. Now it's different. I'm afraid of what could happen if we give
in."
What do you mean?
"We're opening a door here for worse things to
happen -- for there to be no scientific cooperation at all. The next
stage could be a threat that if we don't leave Judea, Samaria and
Jerusalem now, a scientific boycott will be declared against all of
Israel, not only on the institutions in Judea and Samaria. The thought
that concessions bring calm is inaccurate. If we agree to a boycott of
Judea and Samaria and don't resist it, thinking that we'll be left alone
if we consent, we'll get the opposite result.
"The thing is that the people who are shouting
that it's bad for Israel's scientific community are the same ones who
have it in for Judea and Samaria anyway. So they're not exactly acting
out of pure intentions toward Israeli scientific research. I admit that
this applies in the reverse situation, too -- as far as people who
support living in Judea and Samaria, as I do. The question is not
entirely political, but politics are involved, at least partially. Most
of the people who are terribly worried about the future of Israel's
scientific research are on the left side of the barricades anyway, and
those who aren't so concerned hold different political opinions."
Is Israel's scientific research dependent on Europe?
"Israeli scientific research isn't dependent
on Europe. Still, scientific cooperation with Europe, and mainly with
the United States, is an important factor. But that's scientific
cooperation; we're not getting any money from the Europeans.
Incidentally, cooperation isn't important just to us, but to them too."
What's unmentioned in either article is the increasing Islamization in Europe, which is likely to assure (as if Europe's anti-Semites needed the push) that these sorts of initiatives from Europe will continue. In 50 years, Europe may well be a backwater to western civilization, but a center of Islam. Israel should start pushing for Asian markets now to get in on the ground floor. Perhaps the next President of the United States will similarly stop that country's euro-centrism.
Cyprus to build LNG terminal for three Israeli oil companies
At its Vassiliko marina on its southern coast, the government of Cyprus has agreed to build a liquified natural gas terminal for Israel's Noble Energy, Delek and Avner oil exploration companies (Hat Tip: Joshua I).
The Cabinet approved a memorandum of understanding (MoU)
with Noble Energy International Ltd, Delek Drilling Limited Partnership
and Avner Oil Exploration Limited Partnership to build the LNG plant
near the Vassiliko energy hub on the island’s southern coast that will
process the output from offshore gasfields within the Cyprus exclusive
economic zone (EEZ), as well as from neighbouring Israeli and even
Lebanese gasfields for export.
Noble is currently conducting a second appraisal well within the
‘Aphrodite’ Block 12 on the south easternmost tip of the Cyprus EEZ,
adjacent to the Israeli EEZ where Noble, Delek and Avner are already in
the process of exporting natural gas output from the Leviathan field.
The U.S.-based exploration and energy exporter hopes to have a concrete
estimate of the size and value of Block 12 by early 2014. Initial
estimate suggest that the block may contain an average of 7 trillion
cubic feet of natural gas.
Energy, Trade and Tourism Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said that the
agreement for the LNG plant will be signed by the end of this month.
Of course, there's almost no chance Lebanon will participate, at least so long as Hezbullah holds a veto in its government. But that's just fine....
Apparently realizing that their behavior isn't exactly giving Israel any incentive to reach a financial settlement with them, Turkey is now hinting at a natural gas pipeline between Israel and Europe.
One byproduct of Israel’s apology to Turkey for operational errors that may have
caused loss of life on the Mavi Marmara could be cooperation in the energy
field, Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Tuesday.
“We should
acknowledge that it is a political issue,” Yildiz was quoted by Today’s Zaman as
saying in reference to the apology at an energy conference in Ankara, amid a
slight decrease in public Turkish gloating over the issue.
“The reason
for the apology is not [common] energy projects, but the result of it can be
energy projects,” he said.
“Within the process of normalization, after
Israel has fulfilled its responsibilities towards our side, the project of
transporting Israeli gas via Turkey could come onto the agenda.”
While
Israel has not yet decided whether or how much of its natural gas reserves that
just began flowing on Saturday should be exported – or whether the preferred
market is to Europe via Cyprus or Turkey, or the Far East via Eilat – there was
considerable talk during the height of the Turkish-Israeli diplomatic tension of
an Israel-Cyprus- Greece energy corridor that would bypass Turkey.
But
now, with Cyprus’s financial woes coupled with the beginning of a Jerusalem-
Ankara rapprochement, the idea of a pipeline to Turkey is once again gaining
currency.
Do we really want our gas exports to be dependent upon an 'ally' as unreliable as Turkey?
Natural gas from the Tamar field in the Mediterranean started to flow on Saturday in what Israelis hope will be our ticket to energy independence.
"Today (we begin) independence in Israeli natural gas. It is an
enormous achievement for the Israeli economy and the start of a new
era," said billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, the controlling shareholder in
Delek Group, one of the partners in Tamar.
The gas should lead to a
reduction in production costs for state utility Israel Electric Corp as
well as a decline in the price of electricity, the Water and Energy
Ministry said last week.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netantyahu highlighted the achievement in a statement issued by his office.
"We
are taking an important step towards independence in the energy sector.
In the past decade we have promoted Israel's gas sector and this will
enhance Israel's economy and benefit all the country's citizens," he
said.
Tamar is located 90 kilometers off the coast of Haifa and
has an estimated 10 trillion cubic feet of gas. Development of Tamar and
Leviathan will make Israel less dependent on energy imports but the
country has said it will also allow a significant amount of its natural
gas to be exported.
I wonder if anyone at Israel Electric is listening. Or maybe the government wants to keep our prices as high as they are already, and to use the new gas to provide for the 'Palestinians.'
Iranian oil workers had to jump for their lives when part of a
multi-million dollar oil platform began to sink into the Persian Gulf.
New video of last week's sinking shows the workers running along the
structure and diving into the water as the ‘jacket’ of the $40 million
rig plunges under the waves.
The rig was being installed in the
South Pars field by Iran’s POGC and the builder Iranian Marine
Industrial which is controlled by the country’s Revolutionary Guards,
says Dow Jones newswires.
Reuters reports the local Mehr news
agency saying Iran had asked for foreign help to retrieve the oil rig
from 80 meters down in the Gulf.
I'm sure the 'international community is lining up to help them.
Australia's second largest producer invests $700 million in Leviathan
Australia's second largest gas producer, Woodside Petroleum, has purchased a 30% stake in Israel's Leviathan gas well, and will make an initial investment of nearly $700 million.
Woodside will acquire a 30 percent interest in the Leviathan field,
estimated to contain 17 trillion cubic feet of gas, from partners Noble
Energy Mediterranean Ltd., Delek Drilling, Avner Oil Exploration and
Ratio Oil Exploration, the Perth-based company said Monday in a
statement.
“Being selected as the Leviathan joint venture’s preferred partner in
a competitive bidding process demonstrates the value of our LNG
development capabilities,” Chief Executive Officer Peter Coleman said in
the statement. Woodside will be the operator of any liquefied natural
gas development of the field. “Acquiring an interest in these permits is
an exciting opportunity to grow our portfolio in the emerging Eastern
Mediterranean basin and we look forward to finalizing the agreement.”
In
addition to the $696 million initial payment, Woodside has agreed to
pay $200 million once laws permitting Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) export
from Israel are in force, and $350 million on a final investment
decision in relation to an LNG development.
"This is a company
with an excellent reputation that will position Israel as an important
player in the global LNG market," said Igal Landau CEO of Ratio Oil
Exploration. "It is impossible to minimize the important impact of this
process on Israel's energy sector and the economy in general."
Speaking
during a conference call Monday, Woodside's Coleman declined to put a
time frame on construction of an LNG plant, but said design work on the
project had already begun, according to the Financial Review. “We want
to pursue it as quickly as we can,” he said.
With all the talk about boycotts, they just keep on buying....
Turkey conducts unauthorized naval maneuvers off Cyprus
The Israeli, British and Turkish navies conducted maneuvers off the coast of Cyprus on Thursday. But there was a difference between them. While Israel and Britain had the approval of the Cypriot government to conduct their maneuvers, the Turks most definitely did not have that approval.
Cypriot media reports claimed that Israel and Great Britain asked and received permission from Cyprus to hold their maneuvers but that the Turkish navy did not, and as a result Nicosia was considering submitted an official complaint to the United Nations.
...
IDF sources could not confirm the reports but the navy announced earlier this week that it was increasing its patrols in the Eastern Mediterranean to protect gas fields that Israel is planning to begin extracting from within the coming year.
In addition, the navy is looking to secure an NIS 3 billion budget to purchase new surface vessels it claims to need to effectively patrol and protect the new economic waters.
Greek Foreign Ministry Spokesman Gregory Delavekouras said Thursday that Turkey’s naval maneuvers were a violation of Cypriot sovereignty.
"The constant efforts of Turkey to question the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus as well as to offend European institutions, such as the EU Presidency, need to be put to an end. It is a wrong perception that leads nowhere,” Delavekouras said at a briefing in Athens.
Coincidentally, Greece’s navy commander Vice Admiral Kosmas Christidis wrapped up a four day visit to Israel on Thursday during which he met with OC Navy Vice Admiral Ram Rothberg and sailed on a Sa’ar 5-class missile ship.
Complaining to the UN is a waste of time. Much stronger action is needed.
Walter Russell Mead writes that Israel's natural gas and oil discoveries are already starting to make a difference in how the Jewish state is treated, and things should only improve in the future.
Israel and Canada have just signed an agreement to cooperate on the exploration and development of what, apparently, could be vast shale oil reserves beneath the Jewish state.
The prospect of huge oil reserves in Israel comes on top of the recent news about large natural gas discoveries off the coast that have been increasingly attracting attention and investor interest. The apparent gas riches have also been attracting international trouble. Lebanon disputes the undersea boundary with Israel (an act somewhat complicated by the fact that Lebanon has never actually recognized Israel’s existence), and overlapping claims from Turkey and Greece themselves plus both Greek and Turkish authorities on Cyprus further complicate matters. Yet despite these tensions, following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s surprisingly cordial visit last week, Gazprom and Israel have announced plans to cooperate on gas extraction.
This suggests at a minimum that Turkish efforts to block gas development in the region will face opposition from Russia as well as from Israel. Gazprom and other Russian companies are also likely to do well in any gas exploration deals developed with the strongly pro-Moscow (and very cash hungry) Greek Cypriot government.
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The new Israeli-Russian agreement is part of a conscious strategy by the Israeli government to use its nascent energy wealth to improve its embattled political position. With Italy reeling under the impact of big wrong-way bets on Iran, Rome may also begin to appreciate the value of good ties with a closer and more dependable neighbor. Another sensible target for Israeli energy diplomacy would be India: the two countries are already close in a number of ways, including trade and military technology, and India is eager to diversify its energy sources.
Gas is one thing, but potential for huge shale oil reserves under Israel itself, however, is a new twist. According to the World Energy Council, a leading global energy forum with organizations and affiliates in some 93 countries, Israel may have the third largest shale oil reserves in the world: something like 250 billion barrels. (The US and China are both believed to have larger shale oil reserves, with the US believed to have the equivalent of well over 1 trillion barrels of potentially recoverable shale and China having perhaps one third of that amount. Canada’s Athabaskan oil sands reserves may contain the equivalent of 2 trillion of barrels conventional oil, or more than all the conventional oil known to exist in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran combined.) If the estimates of Israeli shale oil are correct, Israel’s gas and shale reserves put its total energy reserves in the Saudi class, though Israel’s energy costs more to extract.
Wouldn't it be funny if the only way that the Arab Muslims could influence world oil prices would be by undercutting everyone else's oil that is more expensive to produce?
One of our favorite facts is that history doesn’t disclose her alternatives. The world will never know what would have happened had America and the other parties been held to the standards Shamir insisted on at Madrid. No doubt there are many who will scorn the very thought. But here we are a generation after Oslo, and the Iranians are building an a-bomb, the Arafat who was embraced at Oslo is gone without achievement, the Eyptians have just elected a president who will make it a priority to seek the release of the sheik who masterminded the first bombing of the World Trade Center, the Syrians are engulfed in a civil war, the Lebanese are victims of Iranian-based terror and tyranny, and the Europeans are more hostile to Israel than ever. So the world will miss this practical idealist who knew where he stood and wouldn’t budge.
For all the misgivings many now have about Shamir’s intransigence or his specific policies, part of his legacy is that Jews ought not to pretend not to know what, deep down, they know. Yitzhak Shamir knew what he had seen, both in Europe and then in the Arab world, and he knew what it meant. He was no less ambivalent about the Arabs than he was about the Poles and refused to vote for Begin’s peace treaty with Egypt. Presumably in deference to Begin, he abstained, but he made it clear that he thought Israel was paying far too high a price. Today, three and a half decades later, with the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power in Cairo and with Israel now missing the Sinai as a buffer, who was wiser? Was it the Nobel Prize-winning Begin who’d turned peacemaker, or Shamir, who had not? Will the sword devour forever? Yes, Shamir sadly believed, it will. Is it possible that he was right?
Shamir did. He withdrew, like his predecessor Menachem Begin, and did not dispense wisdom or settle scores from the column of a magazine or the chairmanship of a foundation for the years he was out of office. And heaven knows he might still have had much to say. But he understood that a defeated statesman must acknowledge his loss and graciously withdraw from sight. His silence, for 20 years, is a testimony to the respect he had for the democratic process and his profoundly humbling recognition that his time as leader had passed.
Palestinian Authority police employed brute force to break up a second day of protesting in Ramallah on Sunday, with activists and eyewitnesses claiming police assaulted both male and female protesters with batons and chains, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The protests were against President Abbas meeting with Israeli vice-premier Shaul Mofaz. This indicates that peace with Israel isn't all that popular among the Palestinians. By cracking down harshly on the protesters, the PA only serves to hurt the cause of peace.
The Hamas-run government in Gaza suspended the work of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission on Monday, a day before it was to start registering new voters, abruptly halting one of the few tangible steps toward reconciliation with the rival Fatah party, based in the West Bank. The move pushed off the prospect of presidential and parliamentary elections. Though considered long overdue, no date had been set for them. The latest delay added a new complication in a reconciliation process that began more than a year ago with an accord brokered by Egypt that was described as historic but has mainly resulted in new rounds of talks, more documents and broken deadlines.
The first paragraph casts reconciliation as neutral if not a positive development, but what's interesting is in the second paragraph. The phrase "considered long overdue," is misleading. How do we know that the elections are overdue? Abbas and the legislature had defined terms in office that are long over. "Considered" is unnecessary.
Elections are important only if accountability is. Whether it is Fatah or Hamas, the priority of each is staying in power. That is why there have been no elections. That is why there will be no reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. That is why Abbas stifles dissent.
3) Energy and the Middle East
Daniel Pipes disputes an argument made by Paul Miller. Miller, in an article for the National Interest, argued that due to the declining importance of oil, the Middle East will fade from significance. Pipes, while calling Miller's article "provocative and well executed," still disagrees:
This argument is belied by several facts. First, the very cover of the July/August issue of the National Interest, with a tattered flag and a lead essay titled "Requiem for the Two-State Promise: Israel Tightens Its Grip on the Occupied Lands," negates Miller's point. Passions about the Arab-Israeli conflict have only remotely to do with oil. The anti-Zionist forces that rallied in Durban in 2001 and the pro-Israel forces that rally each spring at the AIPAC policy conference devote roughly zero percent of their thoughts to oil, gas, or any other hydrocarbons. Second, Islamism, as the only dynamic utopian and totalitarian ideology extant in the world today, and which largely originates in the Middle East, presents a civilizational danger only somewhat connected to oil (the appeal of Islamism will probably decline along with revenues). Third, the region, located at the center of the inhabited world, bristles with dangers, including tyranny, violence, WMD, and war. These affect everything from sea lane security to refugee immigrants to domestic security arrangements (take a walk around the White House for a vivid demonstration of the latter). Only in the Middle East are whole countries in danger of extinction. Several countries have descended into anarchy, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, and Libya.
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir famously lamented that Moses led the children of Israel for forty years of wandering in the desert until he found the only place in the Middle East where there wasn’t any oil. But could Moses have been smarter than believed? Apparently the Canadians and the Russians think so, as both countries are moving to step up energy relations with a tiny nation whose total energy reserves some experts now think could rival or even surpass the fabled oil wealth of Saudi Arabia. Actual production is still miniscule, but evidence is accumulating that the Promised Land, from a natural resource point of view, could be an El Dorado: inch for inch the most valuable and energy rich country anywhere in the world. If this turns out to be true, a lot of things are going to change, and some of those changes are already underway.
Maybe Miller has a point. It isn't necessarily that the Middle East will fade from significance but that oil's influence in international politics will decline.
Substantial signs of natural gas found at another well
Substantial signs of natural gas have been found at yet another well off the coast of the Mediterranean.
Isramco said that the well reached the target strata at 3,302 meters in 1,103 meters of water. The target strata have a net thickness of 19 meters. All the well's partners have decided to go ahead with production tests, which are due to begin in a few days, and will take 35 days. The production tests will include gas flow at different rates from the target strata and measuring the well pressure and composition of the natural gas.
The estimated cost of the production tests and preparation work of the well for future production, assuming there is a gas discovery, is $33.7 million, of which Isramco's share is $13 million.
Drilling of the Shimshon 1 well began in April. The Shimshon prospect has an estimated 2.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas with a probability of success of 20%. The size of the reservoir is less than a quarter of the Tamar discovery. If Shimshon is found to be commercial, it will be Israel's first large natural gas offshore discovery in which Noble Energy Inc. and Delek Group Ltd. are not partners. Isramco and its affiliates own 60% of Shimshon and well operator ATP Oil & Gas Corporation owns 40%. Isramco has contracted to sell 10% of Shimshon to Modiin Energy LP.
Who says God gave us the only place in the Middle East without oil? That's just plain not true.
Turkey's paranoia has reached new heights with a claim that 20,000 Israeli 'commandos' (as if we have that many to spare) are being deployed to protect Israelis running oil and gas drilling operations in 'Greek Cyprus.'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Greek Cypriot counterpart, Demetris Christofias, met on Feb. 16 to discuss the two countries' joint ventures. Details of the talks between the two leaders were kept secret.
Anatolia cited a source it said was close to the Greek Cypriot government who reportedly said Christophias specifically asked Netanyahu to convince Israeli businessmen to halt their investments in Turkish Cyprus during the meeting.
Netanyahu reportedly offered during the same meeting to undertake all the expenses required to construct a gas plant needed to extract the natural gas found in the Mediterranean Sea, the report said. In exchange, Netanyahu asked that all the 10,000 personnel that would work at the plant be brought in from Israel with their families, which would increase the number to nearly 30,000.
The high number of Israelis in Greek Cyprus would present a security issue, which Netanyahu suggested be solved by sending as many as 20,000 Israeli commandos to safeguard both the Israelis and the natural gas plant, the agency said.
Israel's offer sought to place the personnel and commandos in Limassol in Greek Cyprus.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
