Israel Energy Says Has Funds, Plans Gas Drilling in Early June
By Sharon Wrobel - May 22, 2012 4:26 AM ET
bloomberg.com
Israel Land Development Co. Energy Ltd. (IE), a natural-gas explorer, plans to drill early next month off the country’s Mediterranean coast and has funds needed to complete the testing work, its chief executive officer said.
The Tel Aviv-based company, which holds a 47 percent stake in the offshore Sara and Myra gas prospects, has finished raising the money it needs to drill test wells there, Ohad Marani said in an interview. Israel Land Energy said on May 20 that the Swiss VNG Capital Fund agreed to invest $20 million in exchange for a 9.33 percent share of the company.
“I am very optimistic about starting to drill in the first days of June,” Marani said yesterday. “We believe we have very substantial blocks with huge potential, mainly for natural gas, but also for oil.”
The Sara and Myra prospects may hold 6.5 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to a June 30 report prepared by U.S.- based consultant Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. The Tamar and Leviathan gas deposits discovered off Israel since 2009 together hold an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet, more than triple the U.K.’s remaining reserves. These finds are sufficient to meet Israel’s domestic needs and may enable it to export gas, industry executives and government officials have said.
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Israel’s Undersea Gas Bonanza May Spur Mideastern Strife
By Meghan L. O’Sullivan May 21, 2012 7:21 PM ET
bloomberg.com
...Discoveries of large underwater gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean, however, have changed Israel’s energy prospects almost overnight. In 2009, a consortium of U.S. and Israeli companies discovered the Tamar field about 50 miles off the Israeli coast, with an estimated 8.3 trillion cubic feet of gas. A year later, a similar consortium discovered Leviathan, a huge field nearby estimated to hold 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Strategic Game-Changers
These finds, and the prospect of more in adjacent waters, could be strategic game-changers for Israel. A 2010 U.S. Geological Survey study estimated that the Levant Basin off the coast of Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Gaza Strip could hold about 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil, 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas and 5 billion barrels of natural gas liquids. If true, Israel could meet its own electricity needs in the future and possibly become a net exporter to a gas-thirsty region. This would bring economic and political benefits as well as regional clout at a time when Israel’s regional standing is more uncertain than it has been for decades.
But, because nothing is simple in the Middle East, there is also a real threat that these gas discoveries could serve as a spur for conflict rather than economic growth...
...Depending on the location of the drilling, the extraction operations could face threats ranging from Hezbollah rockets to Turkish naval incursions. The complicated nature of gas extraction, which requires capital- intensive infrastructure such as pipelines or liquefied natural gas facilities, means that there would be plentiful targets for sabotage. (The Arish-Ashkelon pipeline, carrying gas from Egypt to Israel, was attacked 10 times last year.)
Moreover, the economics of the investment would need to make sense solely in the context of Israel’s domestic-energy market -- and perhaps Jordan’s -- because exports northward and beyond to Europe wouldn’t be feasible so long as Lebanon and Turkey objected to Israel’s plans...
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Landau: Natural gas for cars can free us from oil
By SHARON UDASIN
05/22/2012 01:33
jpost.com
Energy and water minister says Israeli natural gas discoveries open window to fight "addiction to black gold."
Rather than continuing to heavily pollute the air and fund Arab governments by using fuel oil, more Israelis will soon be able to turn to natural gas to power their automobiles, the Energy and Water Ministry said on Monday.
“Citizens of the Western world, and we among them, suffer from an addiction to black gold, which pollutes the environments, and some of whose revenues stimulate Islamic terrorism,” Energy and Water Minister Uzi Landau said. “Israel gas discoveries open for us a window to fight this addiction.”
While compressed natural gas is already available for certain cars in Israel, the ministry recently initiated an Israeli standard on propelling vehicles with the substance, which would enable its use on a more regulated, widespread level, the ministry said.
Simultaneously, the ministry is working on the publication of a second Israeli standard to deal with refueling stations that distribute natural gas. The ministry expressed confidence that the two standards would soon become official.
Standards are documents stating technical specifications for products to ensure that they are suited for their intended purpose, according to the Standards Institute.
After being approved by the Standards Institute, a standard is voluntary, until the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry determines that all or part of it is binding, usually on the basis of elements such as public health, safety and environmental quality. Then it becomes an official standard.
From a strategic perspective – in which Israel seeks to diversify its breadth of energy resources, reduce its dependence on crude oil and reap the benefits of its recent natural gas discoveries – using natural gas to power cars will be extremely beneficial, according to the ministry.
In establishing these new standards, Israel will become one of only a few countries with two complementary standards on ensuring the quality and safety of compressed natural gas – one for handling the product, the gas, and the second for fueling stations, the ministry said.
Because building gas stations requires comprehensive planning and licensing procedures, once the standards are complete, renovations will be made on existing natural gas refueling stations under the framework of National Master Plan 18, the ministry explained. This way, the standards will enable both the establishment of new stations as well as their integration with existing gas fueling stations.
“The State of Israel, with and without connection to the Western world, must achieve for itself independence in everything that is related to fuel that powers a vehicle. We are committed to doing our part in this struggle, because it is in our soul,” Landau said.
“Oil is a powerful weapon. And liberation from it is a demanding struggle. This war for independence can triumph without firing a single bullet.” |
