East Mediterranean Gas: what kind of a game-changer?
Hakim Darbouche, Laura El-Katiri and Bassam Fattouh
Oxford Institute for Energy Studies December 2012
37 pages, 7 tables, 4 Figures, 2 maps
oxfordenergy.org
Abstact
The discovery of sizable gas resources in the Levant Basin, a
geological structure that straddles the territorial waters of Cyprus,
Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, and Syria, has the
potential to be game-changing for the East Mediterranean region.
Hitherto net energy importers, these countries are now faced with
the prospect of long-term energy self-sufficiency and the
development of a new revenue stream for the economy. With the
resource potential of the Levant Basin believed to be much higher
than the 35 Tcf of gas discovered recently, the East Mediterranean
is now the focus of much interest on the part of major upstream
investors. However, in the short to medium term, the development
and monetisation of these resources present stakeholders with a set
of challenges originating in the region’s complex political make-up,
as well as in the fact that their energy and gas utilisation policies
are still work in progress, over and above the technical difficulties
relating to the development of these resources. This paper examines
the challenges and opportunities that have been given rise to by
these discoveries, arguing that to 2020 East Mediterranean gas is
more likely to be a game-changer for local energy systems than for
regional and international gas markets.
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FWIW, Noble Energy faces some challenges in monitizing its Levant
discoveries. |
