In advance of this year’s Israel Independence Day on April 16, Israeli officials are celebrating news that they hope will mean long-term energy independence for the Jewish state.
The Tamar offshore gas field has started production after four years of exploration and drilling by Israel. The field is expected to meet Israel’s domestic needs for at least the next 20 years.
“This is Israel’s energy independence day,” said Silvan Shalom, head of Israel’s Energy and Water Resources Ministry. “It is truly a historic event. Israel has received energy freedom.”
The field, which was discovered in 2009 about 81 miles west of Haifa, reportedly has gas reserves of up to 8.5 trillion cubic feet. U.S.-based Noble Energy as well as Israeli firms — Delek, Isramco and Dor Alon — own the field.
Israel, which has invested $3.5 billion in the Tamar project, has been facing a natural gas crisis since the gas flow from Egypt was disrupted by terror attacks on a gas line to Israel. And recently, Egypt canceled its natural gas contract with Israel.
The gas, which began being moved to a production rig near Ashdod in southern Israel on March 30, will be used for the generation of electricity at power stations, which will increase its availability and allow for lower prices. Electricity prices have risen 24 percent in recent years.
The Tamar field is located next to the larger Leviathan field, which will be used mostly for export. Leviathan, expected to go online in 2016, boasts an estimated 16 to 18 trillion cubic feet of gas.
The discoveries, however, are turning into a mixed blessing for Israel. Selling this gas overseas will require Israel to navigate a geopolitical quagmire that risks angering allies and enemies alike. Amid this uncertainty, Israel still has not formulated an export policy.
“Instead of being an ingredient which serves to calm the tensions of the eastern Mediterranean, [the discoveries] provide instead another impetus for rivalry,” said Simon Henderson, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “There is a reason this is often called diplomatically trapped gas.”
The discoveries are just a portion of the huge reserves in the Levant Basin, which the U.S. Geological Survey estimated in 2010 holds some 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.
The finds are still minimal compared to gas giants Russia, Iran or Qatar. In all, Israel has just the world’s 46th largest supply of proven natural gas reserves, according to the CIA Factbook. But the country’s proximity to Middle Eastern and European markets could make it an important regional player.
“The challenge we face now is … the failure to decide on export,” said Bini Zomer, an official in Israel with Noble Energy, the Texas-based company that has led exploration efforts. “The policymakers seem to lack a sense of urgency.”
The challenges are many. Cooperating with Cyprus risks antagonizing Turkey. The neighboring Arab countries Egypt and Jordan might provide opportunity as markets, albeit with some political risk. Europe is a potentially larger and more stable market, but reaching the continent is a logistical challenge and there’s a risk of angering Russia, which supplies much of Europe.
Israel has already broached volatile turf by opening talks with Cyprus, which has traditionally sided with the Palestinians. The two countries, whose territorial waters border each other, are looking into how best to jointly exploit their mineral reserves. One option is to pipe the gas to Cyprus, where it could be processed for export.
There are other challenges closer to home. The maritime border between Lebanon and Israel is disputed. Although it appears no major gas sits in the contentious area, tensions have flared over the disagreement. Hezbollah has threatened to use force to protect what it says is Lebanon’s natural wealth.
Moreover, any infrastructure Israel builds is vulnerable to attacks from the myriad militant groups in Egypt, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. n
JTA, jns.org and the Associated Press contributed to this report.