When the Israeli Supreme Court handed down a high
profile decision, it caught the world’s notice: The
government there will be able to legally export 40
percent of the country’s natural gas, which is a
newfound asset there that could benefit its internal
economy as well as its foreign relations.
Attention is now centered on Israel’s Tamar and
Leviathan gas fields, which hold as much as 10
trillion cubic feet and 18 trillion cubic feet of
natural gas, respectively. The latter is said to be
the largest such find in the Mediterranean Sea. One
of the key questions that Israel has been debating
internally is whether the gas should stay at home or
whether it could also be exported.
The developers, Noble Energy and its Israeli
counterparts, Delek Drilling and Avner Exploration,
have said that exporting the gas could bring many
social and economic benefits to the Middle Eastern
nation. For their part, it would give added
opportunities but for the Israelis, it could also
mean greater respect in both the region and European
continent; their gas could compete with that of
Russia’s Gazprom, which now supplies a quarter of
Europe’s natural gas.
The left-leaning political parties as well as social
activists there, however, have said that the nation
needs to feed its own energy appetite before it
would worry about offsetting supply issues tied to
other countries. Moreover, the natural gas could
help displace some of Israel’s coal-fired powered
electricity, which has supplied 70 percent of the
11,300 megawatts it has. Natural gas provides 20
percent while oil makes up the rest.
Those groups thus petitioned the country’s high
court to prevent such exports. They had argued that
those kind of decisions are best made by the
Knesset, or its national legislature -- not the
government’s regulatory bodies. The High Court there
voted recently 5-to-2 in favor of the government’s
export decision.
According to
Noble’s website, it has a 36 percent working
interest at Tamar, which was discovered in 2009. At
that time, it had been the largest deepwater natural
gas discovery in the world. Now, though, “Leviathan
represents the largest exploration success in Noble
Energy’s history ... We are actively studying
multiple export options, including both LNG and
pipeline scenarios, as well as a potential domestic
development solution.”
Within the Middle East and North Africa, Jordan and
South Sudan have friendly relations with Israel and
would likely be its customers. Meantime, Europe
could look to Israel to provide such resources, or
Europe could go turn to the United States.
Here in this country, developers are also actively
petitioning their government to export natural gas
in the form of LNG. Some of the same economic
arguments are being made, both for and against.
Opponents fear, for example, that it would push up
prices as international demand for the product
increases. Proponents counter that more expansive
markets mean increased economic growth at home.
That ‘export’ debate is now ongoing in both the
United States and Israel. As for Israel, it is
building a dozen new natural gas-fired generators,
which helps explain why the nation will keep 60
percent of its natural gas discoveries at home.
Beyond that, it has a longer-term goal of replacing
many of its coal-and-oil-fired generators. Meantime,
it is also trying to advance its wind and solar
programs.
Israel’s natural gas discoveries are good for its
internal economics as well as its global outreach
efforts. Within its grasp are a cleaner energy
future and better relations with other parts of the
world.
Twitter: @Ken_Silverstein
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